MUMBAI: In a novel initiative, the Maharashtra government has set up an ‘action room’ to coordinate and focus all its efforts on poverty reduction. A peculiar co-existence of affluence and poverty is seen in Maharashtra, where the per capita income at Rs 114,392 is distinctly higher than the national average of Rs 74,380 and the poverty rate at 17 per cent is close to the national average of 22 per cent.
There’s also a sharp urban-rural divide. While the urban poverty rate is 9 per cent, just 5 percentage points lower than the national average, the rural poverty rate is 24 per cent, only 1 percentage point less than the national average.
Though the poverty reduction rate increased in Maharashtra after 2005, it didn’t match the growth of many sectors. This disparity exists not just in key Human Development Index (HDI) indicators like poverty, between the rich and poor, higher castes and lower castes, between men and women, but there is also major disparity in access to health facilities, basic civil amenities and literacy etc. This disparity exists both at inter-personal and intergroup levels.
Almost 10 per cent of India, a significant share of India’s poor live in Maharashtra. With the state lagging behind on HDI it has affected the national growth picture. This made it vital for policymakers to come up with a new initiative to reduce poverty faster.
“The state has been actively engaged in poverty reduction since 2006. But, it lacked efforts in employment generation, so the change in poverty levels wasn’t significant. Hence, we decided to give an impetus to the efforts through a systematic approach,” said Minister of Finance, Planning & Forests Sudhir Mungantiwar.
“The action room was developed with the UNDP’s help. UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in India Yuri Afanasiev said if the pilot project was successful it would lead the way not just for India but for entire Asia,” he added.
Lack of credible ground-level data has been identified as one of the key drawbacks, hence, the project envisages robust data collection to create block-wise data repository on demographic and socio-economic indicators. Identifying data gaps and finding innovative solutions to address them is the next step.
The action room will work on 27 development blocks of 13 of the poorest districts of the state to boost agriculture-based employment generation in a systematic way over next two years. The thrust would be on agri-businesses and value chain development and the intervention is expected to improve entrepreneurship and provide employment opportunities to 500 families per block and also improve service delivery of health and education.
The Tata trusts, IIT Bombay, TISS, Mumbai University’s School of Public Administration, Pradan an NGO from Madhya Pradesh that had been working on similar lines are project partners. The Central Food Technology Research Institute, Bengaluru, with a pool of over 4,000 food-processing technologies too is expected to be on board soon, the minister said.
Key statistics
Rs 114,392 is Maharashtra’s per capita income, which is distinctly higher than the national average of Rs 74,380
17 per cent poverty rate of the state is close to the national average of 22 per cent
9 per cent urban poverty rate of Maharashtra is just 5 percentage points lower than the national average
24 per cent rural poverty rate is only 1 percentage point less than the national average