Poverty Eradication Programme in India A Case Study of Amritsar City 1

Transcription

1 Poverty Eradication Programme in India A Case Study of Amritsar City 1 Ranvinder Singh Sandhu and Gurwinder Singh * Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India and University of Nottingham, U.K. Abstract T h i s p a p e r a t t e m p t s t o e v a l u a t e t h e l a t e s t u r b a n p o v e r t y e r a d i c a t i o n p r o g r a m m e l a u n c h e d b y I n d i a o n i t s G o l d e n J u b i l e e o f I n d e p e n d e n c e i n , k n o w n a s a S w a r a n J a y a n t i S h a h a r i R o z g a r Y o j n a ( S J S R Y ). T h e p r o g r a m m e e n v i s a g e d p r o v i d i n g g a i n f u l e m p l o y m e n t t o t h e u n e m p l o y e d o r u n d e r e m p l o y e d u r b a n p o o r t h r o u g h th e c r e a t i o n o f s e l f-e m p l o y m e n t v e n t u r e s o r p r o v i s i o n o f w a g e e m p l o y m e n t. T h e i m p l e m e n t a t i o n o f t h e p r o g r a m m e i n t w o n e i g h b o u r h o o d s i n A m r i t s a r s h o w t h a t t h e p o o r a r e n o t h e l p e d i n b e c o m i n g s e l f-d e p e n d e n t d u e t o t h e l a c k p r o p e r i d e n t i f i c a t i o n o f t h e p o o r i n f i r s t i n s t a n c e a n d f i n a n c i a l s u p p o r t a f t e r t h e t r a i n i n g a t a l a t e r s t a g e. T h e p r o g r a m m e c o u l d n o t a c h i e v e i t s o b j e c t i v e s ; r a t h e r t h e p o l i t i c i a n s a r e u s i n g i t a s a t o o l t o b e n e f i t t h e i r o w n p e o p l e i n o r d e r t o i n c r e a s e t h e i r v o t e b a n k. I n s h o r t, i t i s s h o w n t h a t g r o u p s t h a t l a c k a s s e t s t e n d a l s o t o l a c k v o i c e, s e c u r i t y a n d s t a k e i n t h e l a r g e r s o c i e t y. Introduction Poverty has been with us and it is going to be with us for a long time to come. About a quarter of the world s population lives in absolute poverty, which means lacking the income or assets to ensure basic necessities of life; food, shelter and clothing. More than 90% of the poor live in the developing countries. National studies in several of the poorest African, Asian and Latin American countries indicate that more than half the population of these countries lives below the poverty line (UNCHS 1996: 109). The United Nations Development Programme s Poverty Report 2000 notes, the number of income poor in the developing world is again on the rise estimated to exceed 1.2 billion in 1998 after having declined in 1996 (UNDP 2000). According to an estimate of the World Bank (2001), more than two-thirds of the worlds poor were in Asia, 43.5% in South Asia, 24.3% in Sub-Saharan Africa and 23.2% in East Asia and the Pacific 1. The Global Report on Human Settlements (UNCHS 1996) brought out two most noticeable trends during the eighties and nineties; i.e. growth in urban poverty and limited achievements of governments and national as well as international agencies in improving the living conditions of the poor. According to the estimates of the Expert Group on Estimation of Poverty, set up by the Planning Commission of India (1993), during the seventies and early eighties the percentage of people living below the poverty line in India was less in urban areas than the rural areas. In , it was 56.44% in rural areas, which was 7.21% higher than in urban areas. The situation, however, changed in the late eighties. Rural poverty came down to 39.06% in and the * Ranvinder Singh Sandhu is professor of sociology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India. ranvinder@yahoo.com Gurwinder Singh is MSc student at the University of Nottingham, U.K. hayer303@yahoo.com 37

2 corresponding decline for urban poverty was much less viz. from to 40.12%. Sundaram and Tendulkar (2003: 1393) observed that in comparison with an increase in the eighties, a significant reduction in the size of urban poor population has been a remarkable feature of the nineties. According to estimates, there are about 100 million urbanites living below the poverty line 2 (Chattopadhyay, 2000: 4). Unlike most other states of India, the incidence of urban poverty has always been higher as compared to the rural poverty in the prosperous state of Punjab. The proportion of urban population living below the poverty line in Punjab was 25.6% in and 21.0% in , as compared to 13.1% and 10.9% respectively in the countryside (Government of India, 1993). It has been observed that in Punjab the urban-rural gap and the incidence of poverty has widened over time. In the mid sixties, the urban population living below the poverty line was less than double the rural population in poverty, but by the early nineties the proportion of the urban population was more than three times the proportion of the rural population in poverty. In the mid sixties, only one-third of all Punjab poor were located in urban areas, but by the early nineties almost two-thirds of all poor were urban dwellers. It may not be wide off the mark to say that poverty in Punjab today is largely confined to urban areas as two-thirds of all poor are in urban areas (Shergill and Singh, 1995). In 1993, 11.6% of the population (9.6% of households) was living below the poverty line in urban Punjab (Bhasin 2001: 195). According to the latest information given by India Today, 6.16% lives below the poverty line in Punjab in 2001 (Saran, 2003: 42). Data regarding the extent of poverty and its eradication at national and state level is full of contradictory statements. For example, the number of poor people has been increasing though as per government statistics their proportion might have declined. To tackle the problem of poverty, the central government had created the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation. In the last few decades, many poverty alleviation programmes have been launched and large amounts of money have been spent but there are not many studies, which can depict their impact. Khosla and Sheoran (2001: 54) observed that evaluation reports of poverty alleviation programmes, especially of the Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna (SJSRY) commissioned by the Ministry, are yet to be made public. Keeping this fact in mind, the present paper attempts to learn how poverty alleviation programmes perform at grassroots level? How effective are these programmes in achieving their goal? It is hypothesised that programmes meant for the poor do not reach them. In this context, the paper would attempt to find out that how the urban poor are identified in the city? Whether poverty-alleviation programmes help them or not? What are the reasons for their success or failure? Evaluation of the Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna (SJSRY), which means golden jubilee urban employment programme in Amritsar City has been taken as a case study. Data regarding the poverty alleviation programmes was collected from persons involved in it, in the implementation of the programme and the beneficiaries of these programmes. Many other secondary sources have also been consulted. The paper consists of two parts. The first part briefly discusses the main features of the SJSRY programme. The second part deals will evaluate the SJSRY programme in Amritsar. 38

3 The Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna (SJSRY) In December 1997, the Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna (SJSRY) was launched and the earlier programmes like the Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY), the Prime Minister s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP) and the Urban Basic Services for the Urban Poor (UBSP) have been phased out. The programme envisaged providing gainful employment to the urban unemployed or underemployed poor through the setting up of self-employment ventures or the provision of wage employment. This programme is to rely on the creation of suitable community structures on the pattern of the Urban Basic Services Programme (UBSP). The delivery of inputs under this programme is to be through the medium of urban local bodies and such community structures. It has to be funded on a 75:25 basis between the central and state governments. It consists of two special programmes, namely the Urban Self-Employment Programme and the Urban Wage Employment Programme. The Urban Self-Employment Programme (USEP) is to provide assistance to individuals for selfemployment. A sub-content of the programme, the Development of Women and Children in the Urban Areas (DWCUA) aims to assist groups of urban poor women for setting up of gainful employment ventures. In addition, beneficiaries would be trained in upgrading and requiring vocational and entrepreneurial skills. The Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP) is to provide wage employment to beneficiaries living below the poverty line within the jurisdiction of urban local bodies by utilising their labour for the construction of socially and economically useful public assets. To provide supporting and facilitating mechanism for local bodies in all Indian towns, the SJSRY establishes and promotes community organisations and structures. They shall be the focal point for the purpose of identification of the beneficiaries (the urban poor), preparing of applications, monitoring recovery, etc. Moreover, these societies can set up thrift and credit societies to encourage community savings. For the identification of the beneficiaries of the SJSRY programme, a house-to-house survey for identification of genuine beneficiaries has to take place. The target group has to be selected, for which all the following criteria have to be taken into account: (i) Those living below the poverty line (ii) Scheduled Castes/Scheduled tribes (iii) Persons should not have education above IX standard In addition, the group of beneficiaries should encompass a minimum of 30% women and 3% disabled persons. Women beneficiaries belonging to female-headed household shall be ranked higher in priority than other beneficiaries. The scheme aims at the creation of self-employment through micro enterprises and skill development. The maximum unit cost of a micro enterprise may not be more than Rs. 50,000 3 and the maximum subsidy is 15%. The beneficiaries will obtain skill development through appropriate training, for which purpose the support of training institutes can be mobilised. The cost of training for one person is Rs. 2,000. Moreover, infrastructure support like a selling place 39

4 in the form of a kiosk, handcart or rehrie, and tool kits should not exceed Rs. 600 per person. In case of more beneficiaries a joint project can be set up. Development of Women and Children in the Urban Areas (DWCUA) To be eligible for the DWCUA, a group should be formed of at least ten urban poor women. For this programme, a subsidy is available of Rs.125,000 or 50% of the project costs which ever is less. The DWCUA programme can also make use of thrift and credit societies, but such a revolving fund is only meant for the use of the group for: (i) the purchase of raw materials and marketing goods, (ii) infrastructure support the income generation and other group activities, (iii) (iv) one-time expenses on childcare activities, expenses not exceeding Rs. 500 to meet travel costs of group members for visits to e.g. banks, and (v) the provision of a subsidy of Rs. 30 to those individuals who have saved Rs. 500 under Thrift and Credit Society during the period of one year. The evaluation of SJSRY After discussing the SJSRY in brief, let us see how it has been implemented in Amritsar. Here, we shall try to evaluate the implementation of the SJSRY under the following heads and subheads. (i) Identification of the urban poor The sole purpose of the SJSRY was to provide the gainful employment to the unemployed and underemployed poor. To achieve this, the programme envisages identifying the beneficiaries at the outset in order to help the target population. Further, it proposes to provide benefits to the urban poor from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, women and others included in the target group. As per the programme, it was obligatory on the part of the local body to conduct a house-tohouse survey to identify the poorest households i.e. households living below the poverty line in the city and localities. In this regard, it has been observed that in the state of Punjab databases about the poor households are scarce (Sandhu, 2002; 2003). Not even a single local body of the state has been conducted such a survey for the identification of the households living below the poverty line, which is the foremost requirement for the implementation of this programme and other programmes related to the eradication of poverty. This is also true for the Amritsar Municipal Corporation. After obtaining finance for the programme, the Municipal Corporation had assigned a survey to identify the households living below the poverty line to some private agency at the cost of Rs. 85 million. But still the Municipal Corporation has not received its report. They have only a computer output of the data regarding poor households. With the help of this document it is not possible to find out poor households in a locality, because this document does not show the streetwise location of poor households. Even a cursory look at the list reveals many contradictory facts, which compels one to doubt the credibility and utility of the report. A report is to be the most reliable and authentic source for the identification of the target population i.e. those living below the poverty line and others. Therefore, in the present 40

5 situation where the main source is not reliable and authentic, one can imagine the fate of the programme, based on it. (ii) The organisation and its functioning The organisation and its functioning is the most important aspect in all stages of the planning process i.e. starting from the formulation, implementation and evaluation of the programme. Here, the organisation can be discussed at the city and community level. At the city level there is the Urban Poverty Eradication Cell (UPEC). It consists of the Mayor, Commissioner, Local Members of the Legislative Assembly, Bank Managers, all district levels officers of departments such as: Health, Education, Social Welfare and Child Development, Principals of Industrial Training Institutes, Project Officer and members of the Community Development Societies. The Mayor heads the Urban Poverty Eradication Cell. As per the SJSRY guidelines, this cell is supposed to meet every month to monitor the programme. But in fact, it has met only thrice since the inception of the programme in 1999, i.e. hardly once in a year, which shows the priority the Municipal Corporation of Amritsar assigns to the programme. Since so many departments are involved in the programme, therefore to co-ordinate all of them is a big problem especially when all of them do not work under the direct control of the Mayor. We also found that thrift and credit societies are not established as such and that the Mayor does not understand the essence of the programme. Under the SJSRY he only tries to oblige his supporters by diverting the funds to his constituents irrespective of the fact whether they fulfil the basic criteria or not. He is always eager to help the voters from his ward/constituency. Similarly other Counsellors of the Municipal Corporation also try to obtain more funds for their supporters from this programme. Therefore, political influence usually hijacks such programmes from their main objectives and ultimately affects the poor who have less political influence. At the community level, the community-based organisations are vital structures of this programme and these include Neighbourhood Groups; Neighbourhood Committees and Community Development Societies. A Neighbourhood Group is an organisation at the lowest level, and it is an informal association of women living in a mohalla or a basti of manageable size (probably representatives of urban slum families). Geographic continuity and homogeneity is the basis to carve out the boundaries of the neighbourhood groups. The representatives of a Neighbourhood Group are known as Resident Community Volunteers (RCVs). Another type of organisation in the SJSRY is the Neighbourhood Committee, which is a formal association of women from about 10 neighbourhood groups located in close proximity and if feasible with in the same electoral ward. On top of the Neighbourhood Groups and Neighbourhood Committees there is another organisation, which is known as Community Development Society. A Community Development Society is a formal association of about 10 neighbourhood committees at the town level based on common goals and objectives. As per the official records in Amritsar there are eight Community Development Societies. For a detailed study, we selected Community Development Societies in Naraingarh and Fazpura. As noted above, the Community Development Societies draw their members from Neighbourhood Committees and the Neighbourhood Committee gets members from Neighbourhood Groups. Therefore, the neighbourhood groups form the grassroots level community structure, the Neighbourhood Committee is a middle-level community structure and the Community Development Society is the highest community structure in order of hierarchy. 41

6 Fieldwork revealed that there is no such hierarchy of structures in the SJSRY programme in Amritsar. Even members of the Community Development Societies are not aware of the Neighbourhood Groups and Neighbourhood Committees. Naraingarh is a newly developing colony having small size of plots. The majority of the inhabitants belong to the middle class. Even the majority of the lower middleclass lives in their own pucca houses (houses with a cemented floor, walls and roof). All the members of the Community Development Society in Naraingarh belong to the non-scheduled castes. None of them lives below the poverty line. The members perceive the poor as third class people and themselves as they re to help them. The leader of the Community Development Society is an educated, middle class, and socially and politically well connected woman. As per the guidelines, the Community Development Society is supposed to prepare two detailed lists of the locality, one is about the missing basic services in the locality and other is about the households living below poverty line. But the Community Development Society in Naraingarh has not prepared any such lists of the locality. The leader told us that they have organised two tailoring training camps in the area. Further probing revealed that she has taken up this task, to adjust her widow sister in the tailoring training programme as a trainer. She also told us that she has been getting full support from officials of the Municipal Corporation. She is helping the poor by training them only. After training, the beneficiaries are left to fend for themselves. The majority of the trained beneficiaries have not yet started their own work, because they could not get a loan from the banks. Banks have their own conditions for sanctioning the loans and the poor cannot to meet with these conditions. Faizpura is a notified slum inhabited by mainly poor people, but the majority of them may not fall below the poverty line. There is one Community Development Society in this area and all the members of the Community Development Societies are from the Scheduled Castes and five out of the eleven members are from below poverty line. The members hardly know anything about the objectives of the scheme. The only thing, what they know about the programme, is that they can get a tailoring training. So far, they have had one training camp for tailoring in which most of the sewing machines did not work properly, due to which the trainees could not get sufficient time for practice. Consequently, none of them could develop expertise during the training. The leader of the Community Development Society informed us that one of the trained women in the society purchased her own machine but she could not get work, as she was not good at her job. This was due to the short duration of the training period than the duration actually prescribed in the guidelines of the programme. In this locality, the majority of the members of the Community Development Society are working as domestic help in neighbouring localities and their Community Development Society s meeting time often clashes with their daily work. They also find it very difficult to visit the Urban Poverty Eradication Cell for meetings on their own, because the Municipal Corporation s office is about 6 km from their place of residence. Usually, during the training period the trainees are hopeful of obtaining credit from the bank on the completion of their training. When they approach the banks (especially those who are really from the below poverty line) then they find that they cannot get any type of loan, because they neither have any property to mortgage, nor do they have any person who can give surety or guarantee for them. This is a very humiliating experience for them. So, in the present case we 42

7 also find that the distribution of assets is critical in determining whom institutions serve and how policies are formed. Groups that lack assets tend also to lack voice, security and stake in the larger society, hampering the ability of the institutions to perform their necessary co-ordination functions (World Bank, 2003). Under such circumstances, those living below the poverty line, for whom the programme is, are made ineligible by banks for loans because of their poverty. In their place, many people who are not eligible for these loans according to the programme guidelines get the benefits. These persons are politically active or supporters of politicians and come forward to snatch the opportunity. The main attraction in obtaining such bank loans for a project costing up to Rs. 50,000 is the 15% governmental subsidy. This subsidy with a maximum of Rs is directly paid to the bank and the beneficiaries have to repay the loan minus the subsidy. As per the guidelines, the beneficiaries do not fulfil any criterion. Still they manage to obtain credit from the bank because they satisfy the conditions set by the banks. The officials of the Municipal Corporation also like to help them because of political influence and in this way they can show the results of the SJSRY programme. The very purpose of the programme is defeated at its beginning when the target group is not getting benefit. Consequently, the beneficiaries cannot start their own work. The members of the Community Development Societies complain that the officials do not tell them the alternatives to start their own work. Members of the Community Development Societies did not even know anything about the DWCUA and when they asked SJSRY officials about any financial help, they got the answer that there is a shortage of funds to help them. (iii)the finance and expenditure pattern After discussing the organisation, now let us focus on the finance and expenditure pattern of the programme. As per the guidelines of SJSRY, the central and the state governments have to provide funds for the programme on 75:25 basis, but actually for the period 1999 to 2002 total amount received as grant from the central government was Rs million and the total expenditure was Rs million for the same period. Details of expenditure are given below: Million Rs. 1 Subsidy for loan component Subsidy for the DWCUA.19 3 Grant to Community Development Societies.93 4 Balika Samridhi Yojana Administrative and other expenses Total Rs million has been given to banks as a subsidy for sanctioning loans to 240 persons. None of the beneficiaries was poor, living below the poverty line. It shows that about two-fifths of the total the amount has been given to non-poor as subsidy. Out of the total grant received by the Municipal Corporation, Rs million was for the Community Development Societies. But only Rs..08 million (7.2%) has been given to eight Community Development Societies i.e. Rs. 10,000 to each instead of Rs..25 million to each. The officials of the Municipal Corporation are of the view that the money given to the Community Development Societies would not be spent properly. This shows that there is not much faith in 43

8 the structures of the Community Development Societies, which have been created by the Municipal Corporation. Therefore, Rs..85 million out of Rs.1.10 million has been spent on the survey to identify the households living below the poverty line. The municipal officials claim that they have given training to 864 persons in tailoring and computers but very few of them can boast of becoming capable of earning a livelihood because of the training. The information given above shows that Rs million which constitutes 29% of the total grant has been spent on administration and other expenses of the project where as per the guidelines of the programme, not more than 5% of total allocate funds to the state can be utilised for Administration and Office Expenses. It has been observed that only the central government s share has been utilised and state did not contribute anything. Conclusions In the forgoing discussion, it has been seen that in the absence of proper identification of the target group, those living below the poverty line, by the local body, benefits meant for those poor are not reaching them. The city level Urban Poverty Eradication Cell does not give much importance to the programme. The grassroots and middle-level organisation structures like Neighbourhood Groups and Neighbourhood Committees are absent. Moreover, non-target groups mainly man Community Development Societies level organisations. The formulated programme providing various guidelines is far from the social reality at the local level, for example, a beneficiary cannot obtain a loan from the bank because s/he cannot fulfil conditions laid down by the banks. It can be concluded the schemes meant for the poor do not help them in becoming self-dependent after getting training under the SJSRY. This is because of a lack of proper identification of the poor, the informal and arbitrary organisation of the community-based groups, a lack of co-ordination, the low priority from the Municipal Corporation, the lack of political will by the governments at various levels, and the inability of banks in providing loans to those living below the poverty line. The real spirit of the scheme is found lacking among the managers and the beneficiaries. In order to increase their vote bank, the politicians use the programme as a tool to benefit their own people. So the very objective of benefiting those living below the poverty line gets the back seat. A little well of and well-connected sections of the lower middle class get the benefits, instead of the poor for whom the programme was initiated. In short, it is true that groups that lack assets tend also to lack voice, security and stake in the larger society, hampering the ability of the institutions to perform their necessary co-ordination functions. Thus the SJSRY is not able to achieve its objectives and needs drastic changes at levels of formulation, implementation and attitudes of local bodies towards the poor. Thus, the SJSRY is not able to achieve its objectives and it will not achieve its objectives till structural and infrastructural impediments are recognised and taken care of both at the level of policy formulation and policy implementation. Although the poor constitute a vote bank in a democracy, they lack the political influence needed to take advantage of different programmes and policies. Therefore, only a strong political will coupled with sincere effort can make poverty eradication programmes succeed and make dent on poverty. The poor need to be politically influential to allow their demands to influence resource allocation and the action of public institutions. They should be aware enough so that the resources allocated to them are not diverted to others. The poor must have local level organisations to act as watchdogs and to protect their interest. They have to make real efforts to be aware of different programmes meant 44

9 for them and to organise themselves to make their presence felt in existing socio-political set up. In short, they have to bell the cat themselves. A limited role can also be played by the NGOs. References Bhasin, R. (2001) Urban Poverty and Urbanization. New Delhi, Deep and Deep Publications. Chattopadhya, S.S. (2001) Message, Shelter (Special Issue Cities Without Slums) 4, 3 October. Government of India (1993) Report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Urban Poor, Planning Commission, New Delhi. Khosla, R. and S. Sheoran (2001) Integrating Urban Informal Settlements: Revisiting UBSP and the Role of Women, Shelter 4, 3, October. Sandhu, R.S. (2002) A Study of Amritsar and Patiala, A Project report submitted to National Urban Observatory, New Delhi. Sandhu, R.S. (2003) A Study of Bathinda and Gobindgarh, A Project Report submitted to National Urban Observatory, New Delhi. Saran, R. (2003) The Three Indias, India Today (Special Issue) XXVIII, 20: Shergill, H.S. and Gurmail Singh (1995) Urban Poverty in Punjab Trend Over / , I.D.C. Working Paper series-3, Chandigarh. Sundram, K. and S.D. Tendulkar (2003) Poverty in India in the 1990s: An analysis of changes in 15 major states, Economic and Political Weekly XXXVIII, 14: World Bank (2001) World Development Report 2000/2001. Washington D.C: The World Bank World Bank (2002) World Development Report 2003: Overview. Washington D.C.: The World Bank. UNCHS (1996) An Urbanizing World: Global Report on Human Settlements. Oxford: Oxford University Press. UNDP (2000) UNDP Poverty Report 2000: Overcoming Human Poverty. New York: UNDP. Endnotes 1 This is the revised version of the paper presented at the XV World Congress of Sociology held at Brisbane in a session of the Research Committee on Sociology of Urban and Regional Development on July 8, We are grateful to the participants of the session in general and to Prof. Licius Botes, Prof. Jasmeet Sandhu and the editor in particular for their comments on this paper. 2 In , the urban poverty line for Punjab (Monthly per capita) was Rs and for all India Rs For 2003, the exchange rates are Rs. 1 = US $ ; Rs. 1 = as per the Reserve Bank of India. 45