UNDP poverty alleviation plan for BIMARU States

from the Hindu

S. Vijay Kumar and Shastry V. Mallady

Focus on panchayati raj, social audit and inclusive growth

Plan’s emphasis on empowerment of the people

Higher budgetary allocation for health and education hailed

MADURAI: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has chalked out a poverty alleviation plan for BIMARU States — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh.

The five-year plan, an initiative under the United Nations Development Assistance Framework, will focus on empowerment of people and enable them to participate in decision making.

“In the next five years, most of our work will focus on the BIMARU States, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. These are the States that generally have the highest rate of poverty and low human development. We want to focus on how to strengthen the local people and make them involve in decision-making. The area of thrust will be on panchayati raj, social audit and inclusive growth,” UNDP Country Director Dierdre Boyd told The Hindu here.

Access to credit

Besides poverty alleviation, the strategy would incorporate HIV/AIDS awareness, financial inclusion and access to credit. Optimum utilisation of natural resources, environmental protection in the backdrop of climate change and preparedness to counter natural disasters would be another aspect of the plan.

“We are in the process of identifying organisations with whom we can work. The goals will be in the lines of the 11th Five Year Plan,” Ms. Boyd said.

Welcoming the higher allocation in the budget for health and education, she said it was good that the spending on social sector had gone up.

Besides agriculture, issues of landless labourers, crop and cattle insurance should get attention. “We don’t want to see people getting into cycles of debt. We want people to understand the financial system … many people don’t know how to go to a bank. We are looking at where we can make a difference in terms of new ideas, policy discussions and bringing people together.”
Tsunami relief

Reconstruction and rehabilitation in the post-tsunami scenario in India was a model to others. The government took the lead and worked with NGOs and the local people.

“We are trying to support the government on the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. The scheme started off on a rights-based approach and it has tremendous opportunities … it is unlike other schemes as the government is offering employment on the basis of right.”

Ms. Boyd was here to review the progress of data compilation by ‘People’s Watch-Tamil Nadu,’ one of its 15 partner organisations working on the ‘Strengthened Access to Justice in India’ (SAJI) website.

‘SAJI’ is a joint venture of the Ministry of Justice and the UNDP, which is aimed at providing single window information to the common man on judiciary, including information on courts, lawyers, welfare centres and other avenues of free legal aid.