An Evaluative Study of the Poverty Alleviation Programmes of Puducherry

Poverty is widespread in India, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world’s poor. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7 percent of the total Indian population lived under the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day (Purchasing Power Parity) while 68.7 percent live on less than US$ 2 per day. According to 2010 data from the United Nations Development Programme, an estimated 37.2 percent of Indians live below the country’s national poverty line. According to 2011 Poverty Development Goals Report, as many as 320 million people in India are expected to come out of extreme poverty in the next four years, while India’s poverty rate is projected to drop to 22 percent in 2015. Poverty eradication has been one of the major objectives of economic planning in India. Major determinants of poverty are low levels of per capita income, high population growth, unequal distribution of wealth, inadequacy of infrastructure, unproductive employment, and under-employment and disguised employment etc. Unemployment in India is chronic due to the structural defects in the economy. Widespread unemployment is the most striking symptom of inadequate development of the country. After Independence, the government gave a push to the standstill economy and for this purpose it employed the technique of ‘Democratic Planning’. It recognized the seriousness of the problem at the very beginning of the planning process and accordingly, Employment Generation was accepted as a goal of development planning. And hence the Government of India (GOI) launched several schemes of self-employment in order to alleviate poverty. These schemes have gained a significant role in alleviation of poverty by generating employment opportunities. On the above backdrop, the present study is undertaken to evaluate the performance of poverty alleviation schemes in India in general and Puducherry in particular.