Poverty, poor facilities persist in rural areas: report

from Yahoo News India

By IANS

Despite several large rural development schemes, the number of Indian villagers living in poverty has not declined much and rural infrastructure is still dismal, says a report by a leading think tank.

The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in its 'India Rural Infrastructure Report' says there are gaps in facilities available to the rural masses, which constitute 60-65 percent of India's billion plus population.

It estimates that the central government needs to make capital investments in excess of Rs.1.58 trillion to provide full infrastructure coverage in rural areas.

The study, made available to IANS, finds that problems exist in the telecommunications, power, roads and transport and water and sanitation sectors, which it describes as 'unfortunate'.

It says: 'The rural population not covered by basic infrastructure facilities like telecom, power and roads is as high as 92 percent, 46 percent and 44 percent respectively.'

As far as drinking water is concerned, while most rural inhabitants have access to some sort of water source, 'the quality and maintenance of these sources leave a lot to be desired'.

'Even during the recent period of economic reforms, started in 1991, the dismal state of rural infrastructure has hardly shown any significant improvement, thus depriving the rural communities of opportunities that a well developed infrastructure could offer,' it states.

On poverty, NCAER maintains that 'despite many large rural development schemes, the absolute number of people living in poverty has not declined substantially, and indeed poverty still remains pervasive in rural regions'.

According to government estimates, the number of people living in poverty has declined to 260 million, or 26 percent, the yardstick being of those not able to afford two meals a day.

The report underlines that infrastructure in general and in rural areas in particular is critical for overall development of the economy as India is targeting 8-10 percent annual GDP growth.

In India however, the lack or inadequacy of basic facilities remains a major constraint to progress in numerous villages and consequently in the country as a whole.

While the government has largely been responsible for infrastructure development, NCAER feels investment in the field needs to be accelerated.

It estimates that for full coverage of rural infrastructure, capital investments in excess of Rs.1.58 trillion would be required.

'The capital needed to build infrastructure is a small percentage of the total expenditure that would need to be incurred by the states. Nor do the capital costs include central funds that would need to be spent on administrative expenses and subsidies,' it states.