The former deputy Prime Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram’s famous speech on hunger and poverty alleviation still resounds in many minds. One can judge his thrust by his words, when in an interview with All India Radio, he had said-(translated) “Any government who reigns here, whether socialist, communist, capitalist, or authoritarian, should first ensure that no one sleeps without food, each person has at least a shirt and a pair of shoes, and only then work on other things and plans. Quoting Swami Vivekananda, he further said – for those starving, one who provides food becomes like a God and freedom carries no meaning. Hence, our first objective is to provide food to one and all, then only that person can be free.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) is one such welfare programme launched to alleviate the pain and sufferings caused by Covid-19 pandemic and to feed the country’s poorest citizens by providing grains through the PDS system. The government has spent Rs. 2.60 lakh crore so far and another Rs. 80,000 crore will be spent over the coming months till September 2022. According to a report by the dept. of Food and Public Distribution, the initiative stands out as the largest food assistance
program anywhere in the world during the pandemic in terms of the number of people covered, which is more than 10% of the world
population. Along with food assurance, financial benefits and healthcare expenditure are also being taken care of by the government, and continuous efforts are leading to positive results as far as poverty-reduction is concerned.
Financial inclusion plan like Jan Dhan, accidental insurance at the premium of Re. 1 per month and life insurance also at the same premium providing a cover of Rs. 2 lakh have proved vital. Over 12 crore people have been enrolled under PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana- the life insurance scheme and over 28 crore people have been enrolled under PM Suraksha Bima Yojana- the accident insurance scheme. Ayushman Bharat provides health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year to about 18 crore families. So far, over 3 crore treatments under this scheme have saved over Rs. 37,600 crore for the poor. The Jan Aushadhi scheme further helps the poor when it comes to bearing the cost of medicines. With a network of over 8,700 stores across the country, under the Jan Aushadhi Scheme, medicines are sold at 50-90% lesser than market prices, saving over Rs. 10,000 crore for the people since 2019.
Due to many inter-connected new steps & initiatives, India has seen a sharp decline in extreme poverty in recent years, prompting even the top multilateral organizations like World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) appreciating India’s efforts towards reducing extreme poverty. A World Bank working paper has extolled the efforts of the Government of India with regard to extreme poverty in both rural and urban areas. The paper says that extreme poverty fell by 12.3% points to 10.2% in 2019, from 22.5% in 2011. According to the same paper, extreme poverty in rural areas dropped by 14.7% points, while in urban areas it fell by 7.9% points. Whereas, IMF’s paper says- PM Narendra Modi’s food security scheme proved crucial in keeping the extreme poverty levels checked in India even during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The IMF working paper furthers- the proportion of people living in extreme poverty, which is at less than 1%, did not go up despite the excruciating Covid-19 pandemic, attributing this achievement of the Government of India to free food grains provided under PM Modi’s Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana during pandemic. The paper says, a government which is serious about poverty alleviation, must do two things- first, a programme should be in place to ensure that the poor are lifted out of poverty and second – providing a social security net that protects the poor from falling back into poverty. Interestingly, both these factors are well taken care of in India’s current poverty alleviation approach.
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