CAIIB Rural Banking Module C Unit 2 : Poverty Alleviation Programs

02/01/2024

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CAIIB Rural Banking Module C Unit 2 : Poverty Alleviation Programs (New Syllabus)

IIBF has released the New Syllabus Exam Pattern for CAIIB Exam 2023. Following the format of the current exam, CAIIB 2023 will have now four papers. The CAIIB Rural Banking includes an important topic called “Poverty Alleviation Programs”. Every candidate who are appearing for the CAIIB Certification Examination 2023 must understand each unit included in the syllabus.

In this article, we are going to cover all the necessary details of CAIIB Rural Banking Module B Unit 2 : Poverty Alleviation Programs, Aspirants must go through this article to better understand the topic, Poverty Alleviation Programs and practice using our Online Mock Test Series to strengthen their knowledge of Poverty Alleviation Programs. Unit 2 : Poverty Alleviation Programs

Poverty Assessment And Way Forward

Poverty estimates based on the Tendulkar Committee methodology, using household consumption expenditure survey data collected by the NSSO in its 68th round (2011–12), show that the incidence of poverty declined from 37.2 per cent in 2004–5 to 21.9 per cent in 2011–12, for the country as a whole, with a sharper decline in the number of rural poor.
The high rural poverty can be attributed to lower farm incomes, due to subsistence agriculture, lack of sustainable livelihoods in rural areas, impact of rise in prices of food products on rural incomes, lack of skills, under-employment and unemployment.
The Economic Survey 2016–17 tabled in Parliament, advocated for the adoption of Universal Basic Income (UBI) program, as an alternative, to the various social welfare schemes, in an effort to reduce poverty.
It suggests that a more efficient way to help the poor will be to provide them resources directly, a basic income in the form of social security, in which, all citizens of a country, regularly receive an unconditional sum of money, either from a government in addition to any income received from elsewhere.

The Path Followed for Poverty Alleviation

Government had launched many schemes, aimed at creating wage employment and promoting self-employment, etc. Food for Work Program of 1970s, and NREGA of 2005 were launched under the former category. The Government has launched Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, in order to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed and underemployed poor, by encouraging them to set up self-employment ventures or provision of wage employment.
Government has also launched the Indira Awas Yojana (now known as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen), with a view to providing affordable housing to the rural poor.
The centrally sponsored scheme called Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana strives to uplift the living condition of slum dwellers.
Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), launched in November, 2015, is the initiative of the Government to move towards a demand-driven strategy enabling the states to formulate their own livelihoods-based poverty reduction action plans
The National Food Security Act, 2013 (also ‘Right to Food Act’) aims at provision of subsidized food grains to approximately two thirds of the country’s population.
The Government also launched Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY). It is a placement linked skill training program, which was launched in September, 2014. The scheme is expected to promote ‘Make in India’ campaign by preparing skilled workforce.
According to FAO estimates in the State of Food Security in the World, 2020 report, 189.2 million people are undernourished in India. The Global Hunger Index 2020 ranks India at 101 out of 116 countries, on the basis of three leading indicators – prevalence of wasting and stunting in children, under five child mortality rates, and the proportion of undernourished in the population.
A National Sample Survey Exercise pointed towards the fact that about 5 per cent of the total population in the country sleeps without two square meals, a day. In order to make the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) more focused and targeted towards this category of population, the “Antyodaya Anna Yojana” (AAY) was launched in December, 2000, for one crore poorest of the poor families.

Initiatives Of The Government

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission

The Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India launched a program known as National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) by restructuring and replacing the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) scheme, with effect from April 01, 2013.
DAY-NRLM is the flagship program of GOI for promoting poverty reduction through building strong institutions of the poor, particularly women, and enabling these institutions to access a range of financial services and livelihood services.
DAY- NRLM promotes livelihood institutions of rural poor. The mission provides a continuous hand-holding support to the institutions of poor for a period of 5 – 7 years till they come out of abject poverty.
Women SHGs under DAY-NRLM consist of 10-20 persons. In case of special SHGs i.e., groups in the difficult areas, groups with disabled persons, and groups formed in remote tribal areas, this number may be a minimum of 5 persons.
DAY-NRLM would provide Revolving Fund (RF) support to SHGs in existence for a minimum period of 3 to 6 months and which follow all the norms.
Only such SHGs that have not received any RF earlier will be provided with RF, as corpus, with a minimum of Rs. 10,000 and up to a maximum of Rs. 15,000 per SHG. The purpose of RF is to strengthen their institutional and financial management capacity and build a good credit history within the group.
Community Investment Support Fund (CIF) will be provided to the SHGs in the intensive blocks. The CIF will be used, by the Federations, to advance loans to the SHGs and/or to undertake the common/collective socio-economic activities.
DAY-NRLM has a provision for extending interest subvention, to cover the difference between the Lending Rate of the banks and 7 per cent, on all credit from the banks/ financial institutions availed by women SHGs, for a maximum of Rs. 3,00,000 per SHG.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched on 02 Feb 2006. It guarantees 100 days of employment in a financial year to any rural household, whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

The core objective of this scheme, as per the revised schedule-I of the MGNREG Act, are

Providing not less than one hundred days of unskilled manual work as a guaranteed employment in a financial year to every household in rural areas as per demand,
Strengthening the livelihood resource base of the poor;
Proactively ensuring social inclusion;
Strengthening of Panchayat Raj institutions.

Technological improvements have been brought about over a period of time in the implementation of the program for increased efficiency in its implementation. They include digitalization of job cards, seeding them with Aadhaar, linking payment through Aadhaar payment bridge, geo tagging of MNREGS assets, payment of wages directly to the accounts of the beneficiaries, etc.

Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)

It was launched by GOI to provide connectivity to unconnected habitations, as part of a poverty reduction strategy.
The scheme provides for connectivity by way of single all-weather road to eligible unconnected habitations, as per core network, with a population of 500 persons in plain areas and 250 persons and above in respect of special category states like North East, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, desert areas, tribal and backward districts.

Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen (PMAY-G)

Indira Awas Yojana has been restructured in to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Grameen, with effect from April, 2016, to meet the challenges of ensuring ‘Housing for all’ by FY- 2022.
Priority is accorded to female headed households and households with single girl child, during selection of the beneficiaries. The beneficiary of the scheme is entitled to 90/95 person-days of unskilled labour from MGNREGS. The assistance for the construction of the toilet shall be leveraged through convergence with Swachh Bharat Mission – Gramin program. Convergence for piped drinking water, electricity connection, LPG gas connection, etc. under different Government programs is also an inherent thematic component.

Welfare Schemes

Poverty Reduction through Use of Public Distribution System

The Public Distribution System (PDS) is one of the largest safety- net programs in India, set up to provide subsidized grains to the poor.
Keeping in view the consensus on increasing the allocation of food grains to BPL families, and to better target the food subsidy, Government of India increased the allocation to BPL families from 10 kg to 20 kg of food grains per family per month at 50% of the economic cost and allocation to APL families at economic cost with effect from 1 April, 2000.
The Governments have introduced technology- based reforms under TPDS in the recent period, in order to improve efficiency in implementation of the program. Digitization of ration cards, online entry and verification of beneficiaries’ data, computerization of data relating to eligibility of beneficiaries and transactions, computerized allocation to fair price shops, introduction of web- based citizens’ portal, etc., are some of the measures introduced.

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY)

It is a comprehensive relief package of Rs 1.70 Lakh crore Yojana for the poor to help them fight the battle against Corona Virus. This was announced in March 2020, to reach out to the poorest of the poor, with food and money in hands, so that they do not face difficulties in buying essential supplies and meeting essential needs.

Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana (PMJAY)

The program was launched in March 2016, with an objective to provide quality drugs/medicines at an affordable cost across the country. The scheme – a new version of the earlier Jan Aushadhi Yojana – aims at opening of 3000 Jan Aushadhi stores to sell drugs.
Private hospitals, NGOs, and others social groups are eligible to open the Jan Aushadhi stores, with a one-time assistance of Rs. 2.5 Lakh from the central Government.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana

In May, 2016, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, has introduced the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, as a flagship scheme, with a view to making available clean cooking fuel such as LPG to the rural and deprived households.
The scheme provides a financial support of Rs. 1600 for each LPG connection to the BPL households to facilitate them to cover the cost of security deposit, pressure regulator, LPG hose, etc. Additionally, all the PMUY beneficiaries will be provided with first LPG refill and Stove (hotplate) both free of cost, along with their deposit free connection by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).

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CAIIB Rural Banking Module C Unit 2 ( Ambitious_Baba )