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TRANSCRIPT
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Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai
Poverty Reduction Strategy for Madhya Pradesh
Shovan Ray1
Amita Shah2
Alok R. Chaurasia3
Rahul Banerjee4
December 2009
This study was undertaken on behalf of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR),
Mumbai by the scholars mentioned as part of Capacity Development in the SSPHD Project supportedby the United Nations Development Programme and the Planning Commission of India. The studywas coordinated by Shovan Ray at IGIDR
1 Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai2 Professor, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad3 Consultant, UNICEF, Bhopal4 Researcher, Indore
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Contents
1 Introduction
2 Overview
3 Economic Growth
4 Chronic Poverty and Poverty Reduction: Diagnosis and
Implications
5
Agriculture and Resource Management6 Elementary Education
7 Health and Longevity
8 Local Governance, Community Participation and Social
Inclusion of Marginalised Sections
Appendix Background note on Poverty
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Chapter 1: Introduction and the Storyline
This paper studies poverty in Madhya Pradesh (MP in what follows) and focuses on
the last two decades or so in terms of empirical evidence and trends; and goes on to suggest
strategic directions that could accelerate the poverty reduction process. The study of poverty
that underlies this paper is however multi-dimensional in scope and character, and not just
income poverty per se, though that remains an essential and critical part of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) based poverty that is addressed here. Several MDGs are
considered in the paper in assessing various dimensions of poverty in Madhya Pradesh, which
then form the basis for poverty reduction strategy for the state. It must be emphasized here
that this is perhaps the beginning of such an exercise and we should not fool ourselves into
believing that we know all the answers to these persistent deprivations and the pitfalls that lie
along our efforts to alleviate them. It is nevertheless an important milestone that we have
reached in this endeavour.
In our quest for identifying a set of policies, we wish to acknowledge the efforts made
thus far by successive governments at the Centre and in MP, but there are also important gaps
that remain in the agenda of poverty reduction. Our objective in this paper is to identify a set
of policies that in our opinion would deliver on the agenda rather than to point out possible
lapses that may have been committed over the decades. The overview chapter that follows
this provides a thorough discussion of all the major issues and the broad policy stance, and
the succeeding chapters present the arguments in their analytical details, embellished with
evidence where desired and available. In the next few pages we provide a storyline that
defines the contours of our strategy.
At the outset a few facts about the characteristics of economic deprivation would be
useful to motivate the discussion. With about 38 per cent of people living below the official
poverty line during 2004-05 (61stround of NSS), MP had the third rank in terms of incidence
of poverty among the major states in India. Unlike at the All India level, incidence of poverty
is higher among urban (42.7%) as compared to rural areas (36.8%). Prima facie, this maysuggest outflow of rural poor to urban areas in search of livelihood options. Among different
social groups scheduled tribes with 57.14 percent and schedule castes with 41.21 percent of
population below the poverty line were regarded as the poorest groups in the state. Poverty in
Madhya Pradesh is also quite severe as reflected by the estimated poverty gap ratio. The high
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agricultural development of the state with environmental consequences in the interest of its
long term sustainability and the prosperity of its stakeholders farmers and rural labour.
When we discuss forestry in the context of MP, we do not look at them merely as a
natural resource, which is of paramount interest no doubt, but also those who are organically
linked with them and have stakes in their sustainability. Agriculture and forests have strong
links, as they complement each other, but they also have strong links with water
conservation; and those who live in forests and mineral rich areas of the state are usually the
least beneficiaries of the large scale and grandiose development plans that are typically
fashionable. They are also chronically poor and most vulnerable of the population in the state.
Thus we would not be able to devise a suitable strategy of growth and development of the
state without caring for these important sections of our society if we ignore these strong
connections.
Whereas allocation of additional funds for strengthening the forestry sector may
operate as a serious limitation, the recent development with regard to compensatory
mechanisms for conservation being evolved through the 13th
Finance Commission is quite
promising. It is however imperative that the funds received through such mechanisms is
appropriately shared between the state and the people who have jointly conserved the forests.
In the same vein new opportunities under the carbon credit mechanisms need to be suitably
explored and the proceeds are made to work for poverty reduction.
Among different social groups scheduled tribes and schedule castes are the poorest
groups. Most of these poor people live in rural areas and forests of MP with limited
livelihood opportunities and quite a large section of them depend on forests and other rural
activities to eke out their subsistence. These need to be woven into the strategy of
development and poverty reduction, and are considered in this paper. We shall return to the
issues of poverty among these major social groups in MP and disparities between them and
the mainstream of society later in this section in the context of other aspects of social and
economic development in the state.
The contours of agriculture extend to livestock rearing and poultry also, and in the
context of MP they could be important sources of supplementary income apart from full time
livelihood choice for many households. In most rural parts the costs of rearing involved in
diary, poultry and hatcheries are relatively modest as these farm animals do not in most cases
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resort to stall feeding, but go out to the village commons for basic feeds. As a result their
produce may be an important source of income to households, both products such as milk and
eggs as well as their meat. These are important in both self-consumption and cash income to
the families, though in the second case marketing of produce may be an effective constraint
in rural areas with poor infrastructure. Thus, agriculture, forestry, poultry, fisheries, livestock
and other sources of livelihood must be considered both as a portfolio of economic
opportunities in a strategy of diversification as well as complementary in others, such as soil
and moisture conservations, manure for fields and long term health of agriculture and forests
as an integral strategy for both rural households and forest dwellers in MP.
Many households are unable to make both ends meet in the face of deteriorating rural
conditions in the state, long term damage to land and natural resources, and demographic
pressure on land and other asset bases of households, and they opt to move elsewhere. Some
end up as nomadic herdsmen, some as casual labour outside the state and others as manual or
semi-skilled workers in low-paid jobs in urban centres in MP and elsewhere. The ensuing
migration is an important fact of life in the state as partly reflected in heightened urban
poverty in recent years. It is true that migration can be an important source of livelihoods, but
that is not so in MP as most of these groups are endowed with low human capital and end up
earning miserable livelihoods elsewhere with little or no surplus left for remittance back
home for those left behind. Presently this is a major constraint to prosperity among people in
MP, but this liability could be turned into an asset with correct identification of a set of
policies such as quality education in the state. This is discussed later. It may be pointed out
here that the legal framework for regulation of inter-state migration in place needs to
effectively work in reality.
Besides, those who suffer from these conditions, particularly the itinerant migrants,
end up losing out considerably in terms of education and healthcare (considered later) for
their families and consequently their longer term prospect of escaping from the trap of
poverty. This is indeed the fate of many deprived groups belonging to SC and ST
communities in the state referred to above. Considering all these aspects together there is no
escape from a strategy that focuses on agriculture and rural development in MP, and one
designed in an integral manner discussed in the paper.
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We shall argue in this paper that the state should not harbour the illusion of large scale
industrial development of the state to take care of employment of its labour force through
migration from agriculture to industry in a dual economy model a laArthur Lewis. However,
a lot more mileage can be derived from value added activities from micro, small and medium
enterprises and their related services in rural areas of MP. Large investments emanating from
the state sector for development of PSU (central or state government) can no longer be
visualized in the changed economic environment. And the competitive race to attract large
private capital can be ruinous to the state coffers and damaging to both the endogenous
communities and the natural resources and environment of the state, and this tendency should
be closely guarded in our opinion; and this competitive race can be quite tough in comparison
with the neighbours such as Maharashtra and Gujarat, which boast of very high levels of
infrastructure support, industrial base and market depth. Hence it is very important to remain
careful about attracting private capital for large industries in MP. Their capacity to deliver on
the objective of inclusive growth and poverty reduction remains doubtful. Hence it may be
wiser to focus on agriculture and relatively smaller rural industries and services development
for achieving poverty reduction in MP.
There has been an increasing recognition the world over of the welfare outcomes of
infrastructural development. Access to infrastructure and basic amenities such as transport,
electricity, housing, drinking water and sanitation, health, educational, and information
services could have direct impact on quality of life and human well being, including
measureable poverty reducing outcomes, besides the growth inducing impacts across the
productive sectors. The states identification of infrastructure development is of critical
importance in this context, both hardcore infrastructure and rural connectivity, including
public provisioning for agricultural and irrigation, marketing, etc. As argued above, MP has
to largely focus on agriculture and relatively small and agro-processing industries, industrial
clusters of micro and small industries, etc. and all these are very dependent on public
provisioning of utilities and services. The challenge in our context is to make the
infrastructural agenda work directly in favour of the poor and the sectors on which they
depend for their livelihoods. Selection of the nature, scale, technology, ownership, and
location of the infrastructural projects therefore needs to be done by using the pro-poor lens.
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Road connectivity plays a crucial role in accessing the above services at distant places
and also for seeking economic activities outside the region. This would imply appropriate
priority being accorded to rural roads, especially in remote areas. Markets and marketing of
products of agriculture and micro and small enterprises face considerable hurdles in the
absence of connectivity and other communications facilities and these get a major boost with
physical infrastructure development.
Provisioning of physical infrastructure for health and education is important; what is
important however is to make optimal use of the existing provisions by making marginal
investments, so that for instance, teachers teach in the schools that are already there. It is also
important that several of the rural infrastructures such as these could be planned, developed
and managed by local communities through Panchyats and community organizations, which
may seek contributions in terms of labour and other resources available locally to increase the
returns to investment. The same may be done for optimizing infrastructure investment for the
health sector.
It is very important to consider issues of institutional structure, governance and
participation opportunities of the stake holders in all the changes contemplated, including
rights based issues that exist in several programmes such as NREGS. A lot of rural
infrastructures can be put in place with correct leadership, participation and simple
technology, such as for water harvesting, soil conservation, etc. and these are important
issues for governance that are well known.
Tourism of different hues is a hugely important source of livelihoods and employment
in the state and this has already been identified by the state. This can truly be made world
class over time with judicious policy for both domestic and international tourists. For
achieving this objective however quite a lot is required by way of not only infrastructure but
also education, training and identification of other provisions.
Turning to the health sector it is seen that MP displays one of the worst records and
possibly unacceptably high infant and child mortality rates (IMR, CMR) even by Indian
standards, and these need immediate attention. These are not only important MDGs and also
targets set by the national planning objectives, but such lapses degenerate into major hurdles
in other social and economic objectives of development. High IMR and CMR are
immediately reflected in low life expectancy at birth and these are clearly seen in the
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statistics for MP. Experience in various countries, and in several states in India show that it is
possible to make considerable dents in them by simple and low cost methods even in the rural
setting with some trained personnel and clean environment and low cost medicines and
support. Malnutrition of mother and children also affect the outcome and these need
addressing. Of course, some superstitions also exacerbate the problems along with the
widespread practice of low age at marriage and child birth and these must be curbed by direct
intervention by the state and effective education. All through however a central concern
running through health, illness, disease, morbidity, and death is the access to good quality
water for human consumption. This is a matter for serious attention by the state and the
municipal authorities. It is true that education, particularly of women, can contribute to better
healthcare of the household and its children, but the responsibility of the state can not be
washed away in this context.
Other than reflecting deplorable social statistics, major improvements in infant and
child mortality rates also have major economic gains for the state as children get educated
and join the work force. Combined with good quality education and training these new
cohorts of the hitherto non-existent or morbid members of society will add to productivity,
output and savings and bring growth and prosperity to MP the so-called demographic
dividends. When they migrate their prosperous livelihoods elsewhere would be reflected in
bountiful remittances, as seen in case of several other states in India like Kerala, or the Indian
and Chinese diasporas around the world today. These add to the demographic dividend of
turning around mortality rates in a society. Of course this ought to be combined with
interventions in nutrition to children and mothers, effective education and conducive work
opportunities to derive the desired benefits.
Improvements in quality and quantity of education need no emphasis, and while we
are aware of these now, and MP is no exception to this from its eagerness to intervene in this
area, the result on the ground is not always robust. We need to remind ourselves that an
improved outcome on this score would cut across virtually all dimensions and bring about
significant results on multi-dimensional poverty reduction outcomes. Some generic issues
relating to primary education are recounted here and an analysis with data is covered in
chapter 6.
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Despite quantum jumps in number for primary education several problems remain. These
include the rural-urban divide, the massive gender gap that persists, the participation and
achievement differences among social groups and in particular the difficulties faced by the
sizeable tribal populations in these areas. Ashram schools for tribals, notwithstanding many
of their inadequacies that need addressing, show their promise in the tribal context. It is also
important to keep the migrant childrens educational needs in mind, especially since in many
districts migration due to livelihood compulsions is a serious matter for several months in a
year and acutely so among several tribal groups in the state.
Enrolment at school is not a serious problem any more though there are doubts about
the veracity of claims in many cases. There are however important gaps that remain in all
aspects mentioned above, by area, gender, social groups, etc. Retention at school or its
obverse the dropout rate, and particularly as we go up the grade levels, is a more serious
problem among different categories of students. Retention is a general and genuine problem,
but it is more acute in rural areas, among low income groups, among girl students and SCs
and STs. Typically a girl student drops out early to help in domestic chores and sibling care
and in preparation of a new life after marriage at early age, and this problem is acute in low
income groups, rural areas and disadvantaged social groups. And the dropout rate assumes
precipitate levels at puberty for girls. It is however not true that the situation is satisfactory
for boys at that level either, though the context could be different. It is frequently the inability
to support education against the competing compulsion of working for livelihoods. It is also
issues of relevance of curricula, the quality and quantity of teaching material and the
inadequate infrastructure that are relevant.
An inadequacy that is particularly felt is the quality and commitment of teachers and
their adequacy and attendance in schools, particularly in rural areas. Teacher availability and
absenteeism when employed continue to remain relevant. In order to address the issue of
inadequacy of teaching staff in primary schools, special emphasis may be given to
recruitment of female teachers. This may open up avenues for female workers, especially
those who are willing to re-enter the job market at a later stage of their reproductive phase.
This may yield double dividends; one in terms of gender empowerment and another in the
form of obtaining stable and committed teaching staff from the local communities. This
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group may also get themselves involved over time in the larger issues of governance with
greater empowerment in the process.
Community participation and endeavors are important in this context. This perhaps
suggests a need to re-think over the entire issue of educational system, which may essentially
require participation of the parents and community more than the involvement of the private
sector for creating a parallel system for schooling and coaching classes that may create
further divisions between the poor and the rest.
A vigilant civil society is critical to good governance both of which continue to
remain inadequate for MP. A prognosis of what actions are possible, in addition to education
and political empowerment of the people that is underway, is seriously called for and some
issues are raised in this context. One reason for this is the fractured nature in the composition
of MP as a state and the continued domination of conservative forces in the ruling elite. Lack
of an industrial culture and a docile peasantry, and the absence of a critical intelligentsia
while they provide a peaceable social milieu, is not quite the fertile ground for such a civil
society.
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Chapter 2: Poverty Reduction Strategy in Madhya Pradesh: An Overview
1. Introduction:
With about 38 per cent of people living below the official poverty line during 2004-
05, the state of Madhya Pradesh accounted for nearly 11 per cent of the total poor population
in the country (Dev and Ravi, 2007). Of these, tribals are the most poor among social groups
as found elsewhere in most parts of India. Tribal communities are the most poor among social
groups as found elsewhere in most parts of India. In rural area 58.6 per cent of the tribal
population was found to be poor as compared to 42.8 per cent among the (SCs). The
incidence of poverty among STs and SCs in Madhya Pardesh is significantly higher than that
at the All India level. Tracking the high and persistent poverty in the state thus poses a
serious challenge especially in the wake of the large but stagnant agrarian economy in the
state.
Recent policy documents for the state have appropriately emphasized the central role
for agriculture sector, engaging as it does 71 per cent of the workforce in the state, as the
mainstay of the poverty reduction approach during the next 5-10 years5. It also lays specific
emphasis on development as well as provisioning of economic and social infrastructure with
special thrust on expansion of roads and power network in the rural areas. The target is to
reduce poverty from 38 to 25 per cent during the XI plan period. Though fairly valid, the
approach however may need fine tuning and further detailing in the light of the context
specific scenarios pertaining to a) natural resource endowment, b) past experiences with
respect to some of the major poverty reduction programmes, and above all c) socio-
economic-political dynamics influencing the nature and effectiveness of governance at
various levels.
At the outset it may be reiterated that Madhya Pradesh is characterized by certain
special features that constrain, and at times offer, potentially facilitating environment for
economic growth and poverty reduction. Some of the important facilitating factors include
the states central location, rich natural resources, and relatively less conflict ridden socio-
economic political environment, whereas the major constraints seem to have been in terms of
its feudal agrarian relations, absence of historical trade links, and above all the lack of a clear
5 The GoMP has prepared a Draft Annual Plan for 2009-10 ( www.mp.in/sbp/annualplan/AP-2009-10/home9x.htm). This paper draws upon and refers to this document at various points.
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strategy for driving economic growth. While some of these factors appear similar to that
found in the other neibouring states (in the `BIMARU category) such as Rajasthan on the
west side and Chhatisgadh, Orissa, Bihar on the eastern side, there are a few distinct features
that make MP fairly different from these states. It is essential to understand the finer aspects
of these distinguishing features so as to be able to understand the genesis of persistent
poverty and the dynamics of growth (or lack of that) in the state.
This paper aims at identifying certain specific attributes of what could be described as
`agriculture centric and human development focused strategy for poverty reduction in the
light of the context specific scenarios obtaining across sectors and regions in the state. The
paper is structured as follows: The next section 2 presents a brief recapitulation of macro
economic environment in the state, followed by the challenges of poverty reduction and
human development in section 3. Section 4 deals with sectoral thrust covering agriculture and
forests; industries, mining and energy; and health and education. The next section focuses on
some of the cross cutting aspects such as infrastructure development and right based
approach for access to resources/amenities, employment, and information. Section 6
discusses the issues pertaining to governance in the light of the political economy of poverty
reduction in the state. The last section 7 highlights major policy implications that need
immediate attention.
2. Macro Economic Environment: Imperatives for Poverty Reducing and Sustainable
Growth
Madhya Pradesh has relatively low economic base and a fairly slow pace of growth in
terms of state domestic product. In 2007-08 per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) in
Madhya Pradesh was Rs. 13299, which was almost 55 per cent of the all India level. During
1999-00 and 2007-08 per capita NSDP has grown 0.8 per cent per annum as compared to
4.85 at the national level. This more or less suggests a scenario of stagnancy in the state
economy accompanied by fairly substantial rise in population till the recent times. The
problem of low initial level of economic development is accentuated by sustained lower rate
of growth in the NSDP, which grew at the moderate rate of 2.51 per cent during the same
period.
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Of late the state economy has shown some degree of buoyancy registering a growth
rate of 3.78 per cent per annum during the period 1999-00 to 2007-08. While a part of the
buoyancy could be due to the abysmally low growth (i.e. 0.74 % per annum) during the early
part of 2000, it is nevertheless important to take note of the developments that have
contributed to the rise in NSDP in the period after 2003-04. The sectoral distribution of
growth suggests that a large part of the increase has come from secondary sector, followed by
the tertiary sector. Unpacking the sources of this growth is important for gauging its
implications of poverty reduction. It seems that the recent increase in the growth rate of
secondary and tertiary sectors is rooted in fresh investment coming to industrial sectors and
the expansion of the Government sector. Would this help reducing poverty of the kind that
persists in the state in the short or medium term? It is pertinent to address this question while
discussing the poverty reduction strategy in the subsequent analysis in the paper.
On the other side agriculture sector, accounting for about 28-30 per cent of the NSDP
does not show significant improvement. During 2003-04 and 2007-08, the sector had grown
at 0.34 per cent per annum, despite the state having experienced relatively better monsoon
during most parts of this period. The pertinent questions in this context are: Why has
agriculture sector failed to show any buoyancy in the recent period? And, what needs to be
done in order to lift the sector from its long drawn stagnancy syndrome in a manner that helps
the poor on a sustained basis? Getting a more nuanced understanding is crucial as the sector
has already received the due priority in the wake of the recent policy thinking in the state.
The long drawn stagnancy in the state economy has led to a sense of urgency for
boosting up economic growth during the XI Five Year Plan. The target is to attain 7.9 per
cent rate of growth taking a major leap from the modest rate of 3.8 per cent achieved during
2003-04 and 2007-08. The sectoral targets are set as 5, 10, and 8 per cent for primary,
secondary and tertiary sectors respectively.While the urgency and hope (based on the recent
upsurge of growth in secondary and tertiary sectors) is well in place, it is imperative to
examine the feasibility and the strategy that may actually work on ground towards meeting
the target.
Apart from benefiting directly from the sector specific growth, the state also needs to
boost up its economy in order to access its own resource base for investing that in various
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priority sectors, including agriculture and infrastructure development both economic and
social. In absence of this, the state is bound to continue its dependence on the Centrally
Sponsored Schemes (CSS) for development in general and poverty reduction in particular.
This syndrome of excessive dependence on CSS may have its own flip side especially
because of the restrictions they may impose on prioritization, sequencing and continuity of
such interventions. However, a relevant issue that emerges in the context of the states access
to financial resources is that of its effective use. This is important because generating the
requisite additional resources by boosting up economic growth within the state may take
longer than 5-10 years. Meanwhile the state may continue to draw from the already existing
schemes of the Central Government. In both cases the issue of `how effectively these
resources have been used would remain critical, hence warrants careful introspection.
It is here that the larger question of governance and the political economy shaping that
comes to the centre stage of the poverty reduction strategy discussed later in the paper.
3. Multidimensional Poverty and Human Development: Interface and Challenges
Extent and Nature of Poverty:
While the state has achieved notable reduction in poverty since the mid seventies, the
rate of poverty reduction in the more recent period (i.e. during 1999-00 and 2004-05) has
come to a halt, if not undergone reversal in the direction of change. Similarly the poverty gap
and squared poverty gap (denoting depth and severity of income deprivation among the poor) indexes
also decreased during this period in the state but the rate of decrease in these indexes has also
been slower compared to the national average as well as most of the major states of the country. The
rate of poverty reduction in M.P. was 1.09 as against the national average of 1.96 per cent per
annum. Similarly the poverty gap and squared poverty gap indexes also decreased during this
period in the state but the rate of decrease in these indexes has also been slower compared to the
national average as well as most of the major states of the country. According the estimates by Dev
and Ravi (2007), nearly 16 per cent of the population in the state was in the category of very
poor, whose expenditure level is below 75 per cent of the official poverty line. This is
substantially higher than the national average of 10.3 per cent. This proportion is higher than
Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Unlike the all-India average, the incidence of poverty is higher among urban (42.7%)
as compared to rural areas (36.8%). Prima facie, this may suggest the outflow of rural poor to
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urban areas in search of livelihood options (UNDP, 2007 p. 74). While one finds a similar
pattern in other states like Gujarat, the situation is not quite comparable due to the fact that: a)
M.P., unlike Gujarat, is a state with net out-migration; and b) the relatively urban poverty is
juxtaposed against a fairly high level of overall poverty (almost double that of Gujarat) in the
state. The impact of migration is further reflected by rural-urban differences across regions
shown on Table 1. Close to half of the rural population in Vindhya, central and southern
regions in M. P. were poor during 2004-05. In urban areas, poverty is particularly high in
Northern region besides central and southern regions in the state.
A comparative analysis of NSSO-regions also suggest that all the six NSSO-regions
in the state were among the top 20 regions with highest incidence of poverty in the country;
and that five out of the six regions (except Northern) had appeared in the list of those that
were present in the three consecutive rounds of the NSSO-survey since 1987 (Shah, 2007).
This suggests that in a relative sense, poverty has been more or less intractable in most parts
(regions) of the state; the only other state that shows a similar pattern is Bihar. Chronicity of
poverty thus becomes an important feature of Madhya Pradesh, which essentially may call for
a more structural diagnosis of poverty in the state, as discussed later in this paper.
Apart from poverty being persistent and severe, the sate is also caught in a trap of
multidimensional poverty capturing the critical dimensions of human development. As a
measure of multi-dimensional poverty, Chaurasia (2009) has estimated district wise Human
Poverty Index (HPI) by incorporating the following four indicators (See the figure below):
Probability of a new born not surviving to 5 years of age.
Proportion of population at least 15 years old illiterate - unable to read
and write with understanding.
Proportion of asset less households, households having none of the
following six assets - radio/transistor, television, telephone, bicycle,
scooter/motorcycle/moped, and car/jeep/van. Proportion of households without access to safe drinking water.
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Figure 1: Social Categorywise Multidimensional Poverty (%) in Madhya Pradesh 2001
Two important aspects emerge from these estimates. First, unlike the HCR, which
takes into account only the money metric measure, human poverty index is found to be
significantly higher in rural areas than that in urban areas. Secondly, STs are the most
vulnerable social groups, a large proportion of which are located in forest based regions in the
state.
The estimate of Human Development Index (HDI) for M.P. during the year 2001 was
0.394 as against 0.472 for all-India. The state ranked fourth from the bottom, only after Bihar,Assam and Uttar Pradesh. Among districts in the state, the HDI varies significantly from
more than 0.6 in the case of districts with major urban centers like Indore, Harda, Bhopal,
Gwalior, Dewas, and Ujjain to as low as 0.398 in Jhabua.
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The various evidence presented in this report reveal that poverty (measured through
head count ratio, HCR) in MP is fairly widespread; it has persisted over a long period in most
parts of the state; and it has also spilled over from rural to urban areas. What is also important
is that the HCR and HPI depict a divergent scenario across rural and urban areas in the state.
Interface between Poverty (HCR) and Human Development:
A recent analysis of the typology of major states in the country indicates that Madhya
Pradesh falls into the category of a `vicious cycle with low levels of economic growth, per
capita income, and human development (Shah and Shiddhalingaswamy, 2009). This however
may not imply that the two sets of poverty-dimensions (i.e. income and human development)
are entirely independent of each other. The analysis of rank co-relation among the three
indicators viz; income, education and health capabilities across districts in the state brought
out two important findings: First, income and educational capability have significant positive
correlation. The causation, as indicated by several studies, may by and large imply that
persons endowed with higher income ends up with better educational attainment; the
causation to work in reverse direction may not be so strong especially at low levels of
income. And, second, attainment of health status is not significantly linked with income or
education. This may suggest that higher income may be a necessary but not sufficient
condition for ensuring better health status as much would depend on the effective access and
quality of health services besides affordability.
Together the evidence reinstates the importance of working simultaneously towards
income enhancement and provisioning of health-educational services. The important point
however is that improvement of these two sets of poverty indicators should take place
through processes that help building close links among each other lest the improvements turn
out to be short-lived. Identifying the right kind of policies that could build convergence
between income and human development aspects thus poses a critical challenge, which
essentially goes beyond attaining higher economic growth or creating the requisite physical
infrastructure for health and educational servicesper se.
4. Sectoral Strategies: Salient Features
This section discusses strategies for strengthening three groups of sectors viz,
agriculture and forest, industry and minerals, and education and health in the context of their
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specific roles in poverty reduction in the state. While these sectors have been given due
importance in the current Five Year Plan in the state, the focus here is to present a more
nuanced understanding on what kind of growth in these sectors could work for poverty
reduction on a sustained basis as against promoting growthper se.
a) Agriculture and Forests:
Given the critical dependence of a large proportion of the rural population on
agriculture and forest resources in the state, this sector has unequivocally assumed the central
stage of planned development and poverty reduction policies in the state. Evolving a strategy
for pro-poor and sustainable growth in agriculture and forests, however, calls for a careful
scrutiny of land and water resource endowment on the one hand and access to forest
resources, especially among the tribals, on the other hand. The strategy for agriculture-
forestry based growth therefore needs to be fine tuned in the light of the situation analyses on
these aspects.
The policy approach at present has laid special emphasis on expansion and utilization
of irrigation potential (both-surface and ground water) along with provisioning of road and
energy infrastructure to support this `irrigation driven approach for agricultural growth in the
state. While the critical role of irrigation in promoting agricultural productivity in the state
can not be over emphasized, it is imperative to note that such an approach may meet with
limitations set by geo-hydrological features, if not access and equity issues, obtaining across
different ago-climatic regions in the state.
The water resources in the state are marked by certain specific geo-hydrological
features that may have significant bearing on the water resource development. Madhya
Pradesh is a heterogenous state situated mostly on the upper watersheds of ten river basins
with poor quality soils of low soil depth and high slopes and some black soils of medium to
deep soil depth with flat slopes underlain by impervious hard rock. Consequently the natural
recharge is low and despite a moderate rainfall most of the state is in a physically water
scarce region. Thus the state comprises the uplands of Central India forming a drainage
divide between north, west and east flowing rivers. It has a semi arid upstream topography
with all the major rivers flowing outward from the state and lesser potential for natural water
storage.
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This constraint on water availability was sought to be overcome by providing
electricity at a subsidised rate for the operation of pumps and subsidised loans to purchase
these pumps and other accessories. Thus farmers could tap the water stored in the deeper
confined aquifers by sinking tube wells and installing submersible pumps and also the base
flow in the streams and rivers through lift irrigation at relatively small capital and operating
cost to themselves. In 1993 the supply of electricity to agricultural pumps of 5 horsepower or
less was made free by the government, thus further reducing the cost of water. In a situation
in which this extraction cost was rendered close to zero by electricity being made free and the
water, itself being a common property resource, did not have any price attached to it and
neither did its depletion result in a scarcity value, all the farmers tended to use as much water
as they could get, in the long run the water would be finished even if a few farmers adopted a
more conservationist approach. Consequently the groundwater situation in the state has
become very serious.
The strategy for agricultural growth therefore needs to seriously address these issues.
This essentially may imply a) moving towards a more water saving rather than water
intensive crops and technologies; and b) shifting to farming systems approach to suit the
agro-climatic conditions ranging from dry land to humid and forest-linked agriculture.
Promotion of skill and labour intensive farm practices to partly replace use of chemical inputs
may simultaneously help reducing cost and increasing the demand for productive labour in
the sector.
Enhancing soil moisture profile (rather than increasing the use of water per se),
through development of watershed and small catchments should be given a higher priority in
water resource development for promoting agriculture in the state. This should also provide
impetus for generating additional bio-mass that may be required for building up soil fertility.
In this context, forest-linked farming systems may deserve special attention.
At the same time command area development requires special attention so as to
harness the potential created through building of dams. There is urgent need to develop canal
systems right up to the field channels with proper lining and also putting up drainage
channels for carrying away the excess water. Land leveling of the farms within command
area is very crucial for facilitating efficient use of the canal water. A legislation for
participatory irrigation management is in place but its implementation needs to be
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strengthened significantly. A large part of these activities could be undertaken through
NREGS with pro-active involvement of the water users association.
Overall, the need is to move in the direction of promoting skill (rather than input)
intensive farming systems by providing adequate price and non-price support through pro-
active polices by the state.
Forest Resources and Tribals Livelihood
The legally notified forest area in the state is 95221 sq. kms., which is 31% of the
total area of the state. Of this 61.7 % are under reserved forests, 37.4% are under protected
forests and 0.9% is unclassified. The growing forest stock is estimated to be 500 lakh cubic
meters and is valued at Rs 2.5 lakh crores. The government has constituted a Madhya Pradesh
Minor Forest Produce Federation to oversee the collection, processing, marketing, research
and extension related to these valuable resources so as to provide the maximum benefits to
poor forest dwellers who are mostly Adivasis.
The major challenge to forest management however is the pressure on the forests
created by the livelihood needs of those residing in or near them, mainly the Adivasis. There
are 6 lakh headloaders in the state who draw as much as Rs 250 crores worth of fuelwood
every year. A livestock population of about two crores is also dependent on these forests for
grazing. In addition 20 lakh cattle and other animals visit the state from Rajasthan every year.
Apart from this there are encroachments for agriculture. There are as many as 50,000
encroachers occupying 1.43 lakh hectares of forestland.
The pressure on forests tends to get aggravated because of the stagnancy in
agriculture and the allied sector in the forest-based regions. It is therefore imperative to
develop forest-linked farming system that generates additional bio-mass for building up of
the soil fertility, thereby reducing dependence on external inputs such as chemical fertilizer
and irrigation- the point already noted above. The idea is to make agriculture and forests
complementary rather than substitutes for each other in providing livelihood support to the
tribal communities in the region.
The forests are managed by the forest department in accordance with working plans,
which are drawn up every 10 years for each of the 60 forest divisions in the state. The legal
authority in the hands of forest department staff has historically led to situations of
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continuous contestations, corruption, and excessive extraction by various sources including
the local communities. Of late the tribals have begun to organise themselves and demand
their rights, particularly the right to a decent livelihood. The passage of the Scheduled Tribes
and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act 2006 resulted in a new situation with
the rights of the forest dwellers strengthened. So far only about thirty thousand of the three
and a half lakhs of claims for rights made under this Act in the state have been settled in a
token manner, while for most of the others the process of verification has not even started. In
many cases the claims have been rejected without due verification on the ground. This needs
to be expedited.
It may however, be noted that providing legal access to forests among the local
communities may not necessarily result in regeneration and better management of forest
resources. This is particularly important in the light of the fact that most of the land accessed
by the triabls is already degraded thereby calling for additional investment for which the poor
may not have any disposable funds. A lot more therefore needs to be done by way of
promoting regenerative agriculture suitable to the ecology in the region. In this context, the
recent moves towards payment of compensation for forest ecosystem conservation may
assume special significance. What is however essential is that the forest dwellers should also
receive a part of the compensation for regenerating/conserving the forests. Some of the
provisions under the Climate Change framework may also be taken due advantage of. All
these may call for region specific planning and strategies as has been discussed subsequently.
Credit and Market Support
Access to institutional credit and marketing are equally critical for addressing the
needs of the poor producers. The present set of interventions mainly in terms of Self Help
Groups (SHGs) along with micro finance, and the modified Agricultural Produce Marketing
Cooperatives (APMC) need fresh thinking.
The experience from a large number of SHGs suggests that these institutions need to
be made viable by creating federations and linking them with institutional finance. Also the
SHGs need to be simultaneously dovetailed with the improvements to take place in the
spheres of production and marketing. What is therefore essential is to ensure institutional
support and hand holding over a longer period of time by creating dedicated organizations
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within the Departments or NGOs or jointly by the two. The successful experiments from
states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and also from parts of M.P. (e.g. promotion of SHGs by
ASA) invariably suggest criticality of institutional support over a longer period of time.
For rural marketing, the need is to balance between public (including cooperative) and
private operators so as to ensure healthy competition for protecting the interests of both
producers and consumers. The recent modification in the APMC therefore is a step in the
right direction. There is however, ample scope for promoting producers organizations
(including Producers Companies and Rural Business Hubs) for facilitating timely supply of
inputs, processing of farm produce, and output marketing. All these, once again, will
necessitate an umbrella organization for putting in place a regulating mechanism and
overseeing the actual operations by different players. An umbrella organization such as this
may have representatives from different segments of the market viz; the state, producers,
private players, NGOs and consumers.
b) Industry, Mining and Energy:
The growth experience in the secondary sector has a raised fair amount of optimism
on the prospects of industrialization in the state. A closer look at the composition of the
industrial sector in the state reveals that whereas the state does not have much presence in
manufacturing industry (accounting for only 6 % of the NSDP), there has been an increasing
thrust on promoting this sector by attracting mega projects for expansion in downstream
projects and also SEZs so as to be able to keep pace with the developments elsewhere in the
country. Such plans, as noted earlier, may involve longer time frame and also uncertainty
about their realization, given the competitive fiscal incentives and concessions offered by
already industrialized states in the proximity viz, Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are
however, some new opportunities opening up with the development of the Delhi-Mumabi
Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and also through the likely spill over effects of the industrial
corridor in the eastern part of Gujarat. An important point in this context however is that even
if these are realized in the next 5-10 years, industrialization of such type does not necessarily
penetrate deeper into the hinterland, especially in the absence of dynamic agriculture sector in
the periphery. Industrial growth of this type therefore may not assume special significance
from the view point of poverty reduction in the present context.
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On the other hand, the state is known for two important industrial activities. First,
handloom and specialized textile-printing, and second, nature-historical tourism on the other.
These two sub-sectors need special emphasis through comprehensive approach for cluster
based development. Adding a special thrust of ecological conservation may hold special
promise. It is imperative that promotion of traditional textiles and tourism is attained with a
view to create employment/income opportunities for the local communities. These aspects are
often missed out in the race of reaching out to large number of buyers/tourists from all over
the world, with thrust on standardized or certified products/services to cater to high end
market. The need however is to balance the sectors in such a manner that these activities may
also retain their roots in local producers/entrepreneurs and buyers/customers.
A similar approach may apply to mineral based industries though much of the
resources have been already lost out to Chhatisgarh. Overall the industry-mining sector may
be accorded relatively limited space in the context of poverty reduction in the state.
c) Health and Education:
Madhya Pradesh has a dubious distinction of having the lowest expectation of life at
birth in India which indicates that the health of the people of Madhya Pradesh is amongst the
poorest in the country. It also reflects a comparatively high infant and child mortality rates for
the state. According to the Sample Registration System, the expectation of life at birth in
Madhya Pradesh was around 58 years during the period 2002-06 which was 5.5 years less
than the expectation of life at birth for India as a whole (Government of India, 2008). The
situation was radically different about 30 years ago, during 1971-75, when the expectation of
life at birth in Madhya Pradesh was 47.6 years which was higher than the expectation of life
at birth in Assam, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh (Government of India, 1984). If the trend in the
expectation of life at birth is a reflection of the progress in health and well- being of the
people, then the increase in the expectation of life at birth suggests that improvements in
health and well-being of the people of Madhya Pradesh have been the slowest amongst the
major states of India during the 30 years between 1971-75 through 2002-06. Obviously,
poverty of health remains a major challenge in Madhya Pradesh. The persistence of poor
health and well-being of the people of the state, incidentally, has important implications for
other dimensions of poverty and hence for poverty reduction efforts.
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The Government of Madhya Pradesh has drafted the State Health Policy quite
sometime back. This policy still remains at the draft stage. It aims at addressing the issues of
physical access; effectiveness and affordability of that may still remain a questionable
proposition. It is however suggested that Madhya Pradesh Health Policy should focus on
creating opportunities for the people of the state to adopt positive health seeking behaviour by
making informed choices to ensure healthy life style for themselves, their family members
and to build and sustain a healthy environment in which they live, work and play. It should be
directed to achieve the following.
1) To increase the number of years of healthy life of the people of the state; 2) ensure
lasting improvements in the health-related quality of life of the people of the state which
reflects a personal sense of physical and mental health and ability to react to physical and
social environments; and 3) eliminate health related inequalities or disparities across different
segments of the population. To achieve the above goals, the action points are summarised in
section 7 in bullets points.
On Education front the state has performed relatively better through its massive
efforts for raising the literacy level from 45 to 64 during 1991 and 2001. This seems to have
been attained by expanding the network of primary schools and adult literacy centres. This
involved massive recruitment of para-professionals (Shiksha Karmis) to teach in the schools.
Initially a good move, the policy of para-professionals seems to have created major stumbling
blocks in the delivery of educational services for the last five years. The situation is very grim
as it arose out of what may be called a quick fix solution for spearheading the drive for
enhancing literacy levels in the state. The para-professionals have more or less stopped
attending to the schools in the wake of their pending demand - a salary hike and/or
regularization of their services.
What is in fact strange about this grim scenario is that no one in the villages,
including the Panchayats and Shiksha Samitis, have formal platforms for voicing their
demands for education in their respective villages. The situation needs immediate solution if
the goal of universal primary education is to be met. The recent developments in the wake of
Right to Education may help finding some solution to the basic problem of having the
teachers to teach; the other issues of quality of education and facilities at the schools thus
may get relegated to secondary concerns at this stage.
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This perhaps suggests a need to re-think over the entire issue of educational system,
which may essentially require participation of the parents and community rather than
involvement of the private sector for creating a parallel system for schooling and coaching
classes that may create further divisions between the poor and the rest.
Another key concern that has emerged is the quality of education. The available
evidence suggests that in terms of the quality of education, Madhya Pradesh ranks the lowest
amongst the states and Union Territories of the country, although the state has done relatively
better in improving the infrastructure and facilities. In this context, they need to revise their
approach for teacher recruitment and teacher development.
The state also needs to focus on higher and technical education also as the only way to
develop human resources is through higher and technical education only. The state record in
this context remains far from satisfactory. Privatisation of higher and technical education in
the state has resulted in mushrooming of a large number of private institutions with grossly
inadequate infrastructure and facilities and very little focus on research that contributes to
improving the productivity of social and economic production system. State investment in the
higher and technical education sector needs to be increased. At the same time regulatory
mechanism for ensuring the quality and relevance of technical and higher education needs to
be put in place.
5. Promoting Access to Infrastructure/Amenities and Rights based Approaches:
Walking on Two Legsa) Access to Infrastructure/Amenities among Poor:
Promoting sectoral growth with specific thrusts noted above however may necessitate
support in terms of provisioning of various social and physical infrastructure and rights-based
entitlements. There has been an increasing recognition of the welfare outcomes of
infrastructural development world over. Access to infrastructure and basic amenities such as
transport, electricity, housing, drinking water and sanitation, health, educational, and
information services could have direct impact on quality of life and human well being,
including measureable poverty reducing outcomes, besides the growth inducing impacts
across the productive sectors.
The recent Human Development Report for M.P. has highlighted the need for
enhancing infrastructural facilities as a strategy for promoting economic opportunities,
human development and poverty reduction. This indeed is an important break through from
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the conventional approaches that laid major emphasis on promoting macro-economic growth
for percolation to take place, which was later on followed by direct attack on poverty by way
of supporting income and employment generating sectors for the poor, and subsequently
provisioning of direct subsidies through social protection measures.
Promoting infrastructural facilities in a state like Madhya Pradesh also assumes
special significance in the sense that initiatives such as this could attract fresh flux of capital
investment for which the state does not have their own resources. Given this rationale, the
emphasis is likely to be more on large scale, capital intensive and perhaps growth promoting
infrastructural projects such as irrigation, power generation, and road construction.
The challenge in our context is to make the infrastructural agenda work directly in
favour of the poor and the sectors on which they depend for their livelihood. Selection of the
nature, scale, technology, ownership, and location of the infrastructural projects therefore
needs to be seen by using the pro-poor lens. This would imply that:
Drinking water should be given very high priority. Since much of the drinking water
supply schemes depend on ground water, which has already been already over
exploited, the focus should shift on harvesting and replenishing the water resources
through micro level initiatives like watershed development and rain water harvesting
rather than by digging more wells/bore wells and using electricity for pumping water
and then transporting to distance places.
Provisioning of physical infrastructure for health and education is important; what is
however more important is to make the teachers teach in the schools that are already
constructed. Also several of the rural infrastructures such as these could be planned,
developed and managed by local communities through Panchyats and community
organizations, which in turn may seek contribution in terms of labour and other
resources available locally.
Road connectivity plays a crucial role in accessing the above services at distant places
and also for seeking economic activities outside the region. This would implyappropriate priority being accorded to rural roads, especially in remote areas. Markets
and marketing of products of agriculture and micro and small enterprises face
considerable hurdles in the absence of connectivity and other communications
facilities and these get a major boost with physical infrastructure development.
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Since poor in the state depend largely on agriculture and forests, electricity driven
irrigation schemes may have limited scope for them given the geo-hydrological
features noted earlier. Similarly, regeneration of forest ecology may not require
development of large/medium irrigation schemes that lead to destruction rather than
regeneration of forest resources.
Lastly, a number of schemes already exist for promoting rural housing and sanitation.
The need is to work out more location specific solutions going beyond the pre-
determined norms of centrally/externally designed schemes.
All these are not to deny the importance of some of the large scale, capital intensive
and growth inducing projects for infrastructural development. The bottom line however, is to
ensure that larger projects such as these are not taken up at the cost of the pro-poor
infrastructural initiatives. Balancing this is difficult, especially because creation and
sustenance of pro-poor infrastructure in rural areas is far more complex than perhaps erecting
a few mega projects. The complexities arise mainly because of the vast coverage, areas and
beneficiaries, poor affordability, and absence of institutional mechanism at the local level for
ensuring that poor have their equal share in the benefits.
b) Rights-based and Participatory Approaches
Given the challenges of making the growth/development work for poor, a number of
initiatives have been taken up for promoting community based participation in the process of
implementation, if not so much in planning and designing. The state has taken a lead in
initiating several of these initiatives such as watershed Development, NREGS, SSA,
Drinking Water Mission, and joint Forest Management, credit support through Self-Help
Groups and livelihood support to ST- SC populations. Also emphasis has been laid on gender
equity especially in education and livelihood programmes.
In fact, the policies, like in most other states and the country as a whole, consists of a
number of well-intended schemes and programmes to reach out to the poor. The question is
that of adequacy and more than that their effective coverage of the poor and the most
marginalized among the communities and the regions. For instance, Madhya Pradesh has
attained a fairly impressive track record in terms of implementation of NREGS and also for
improving the school enrolment rate as well as literacy as compared to several other states.
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While it is too early to make any judgment on the poverty reducing impacts of these
initiatives, observations, though scattered, are at best mixed. Implementation of the Forest
Rights Act, however is one of the weaker components in the rights based initiatives
undertaken in the state.
There is however immense scope for improving the efficacy of these special schemes
and programmes such that they could actually make a difference on the life of the poor.
Improving the effectiveness of these initiatives however, may call for corrections at both
planning as well as implementation levels. The challenge is to go beyond the sectoral
approach for development and evolve a more comprehensive strategy to reach out to the poor
by identifying homogenous spatial clusters based on agro-ecological or social-political
characteristics. While this essentially involves convergence of various sectoral schemes and
rights-based programmes as envisaged by the newly crafted concept of Integrated Livelihood
Progarmme6, the comprehensive approach mentioned above may go beyond horizontal
convergence across the existing schemes.
An important element in the comprehensive approach is systematic planning for the
spatial clusters/regions based primarily on the resource endowment, socio-economic
characteristics, geographical context or connectivity. An approach such as this may involve
setting up of the region specific targets, priorities, resource allocation and also institutions
that are suitable to the spatial clusters/regions. In doing so it may unshackle poverty reduction
policies/initiates from the strait jacket approaches prescribed by Centrally Sponsored as well
as Externally Funded Programmes that are presently at the forefront of poverty reduction
policies in the state.
Adopting such a comprehensive region specific approach would require getting back
to the mode of systematic and multi-layered planning as against the present approach of
floating a number of schemes (and perhaps convergence thereof) through lateral distribution
of funds received through CSS or the donor agencies along with the priorities set by these
agencies. The policy space created through some of the Rights-based initiatives may have
greater chance of being used in favour of the relatively poorer and the marginalized among
the rural communities.
6 These include convergence among MPRLP, DPIP, NREGS, SGSY, BRGF, IADP/DPAD, RKVY etc.
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An important aspect that needs special attention in this context is intra- and inter-state
migration. Since migration is an important strategy adopted by many marginally non-poor to
avert falling into poverty or by the poor to check further deepening of their poverty
conditions, it is essential to factor-in migration while undertaking such planning exercises.
6. Decentralisation, Governance and Agency:
Madhya Pradesh, in its present form, came into existence on November 1, 2000
following its bifurcation to create a new state of Chhattisgarh. The undivided Madhya
Pradesh was founded on November 1, 1956. This occurred on the reorganisation of states on
linguistic lines and whatever area remained unclaimed in the middle of the country by the
dominant linguistic groups was lumped together to create the state. Consequently it is an
artificially created unit, comprising of many parts which were governed as autonomous
feudal states bereft of cohesive and binding forces. Thus, the most remarkable feature of the
state is its huge expanse and the amalgam of numerous and diverse communities. This large
spread translates into a range of socio-economic situations which in turn influence
governance. Thus it is difficult to view it as one natural homogeneous entity.
With the introduction of Panchayati Raj all over the country the formal democratic
structures for grassroots peoples participation were set in place. More and more functions of
governance and development at the local level were handed over to the panchayats by
government and quasi-government agencies so as to strengthen these institutions of localgovernance, which provide a legal forum for the political empowerment of the poor. Madhya
Pradesh has been a trendsetter in this sphere. Nevertheless the functioning of the Panchayati
Raj system in the state still leaves a lot to be desired. In the absence of a vigilant civil society
and comparatively low levels of educational attainment in the state the officials and other
political functionaries have denied them full and effective autonomy and and have
successfully coopted the elected PRI representatives into their circle. As a result mis-
governance continues unabated in most cases. Consequently the third tier of democracy too
continues to be controlled by and large by the bureaucracy and the Panchayat executiveconsisting of the Sarpanches and Panches and is riddled with corruption. What has been
handed over in one hand in legal parlance is thus reigned in effectively by the other hand; this
needs to be changed.
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A formal democratic structure invariably leads to the development of civil society
pressure groups that bring pressure to bear on the recalcitrant bureaucrats and elected
representatives for the proper functioning of the government and the administration; this is
evident from the experience of democracy at the state and central levels in India over the past
over half a century after independence and elsewhere in many mature democracies. So the
strengthening of the Panchayati Raj system did promote the spread and growth of grassroots
organisations of the poor that increased the demand for accountability from the government
and administration. These initiatives, so far, has remained scattered; the formation of a
consolidated force is yet to evolve in Madhya Pradesh. This is of critical importance in this
society and the state.
This brings us to the crucial point about the absence of agency to demand
development in the state and making that pro-poor. Creation of M.P. state, as noted earlier,
has subsumed a number of socio-cultural-political legacies, which perhaps made it difficult to
create dominant native stake holders who would identify, articulate and exert their stakes in
the processes of growth and development. As result, the state perhaps became subservient to
the policy framework adopted and subsequently kept evolving at the national level. The
question therefore is: who have been the important stake holders (or vested interests groups)
to hold the torch of economic growth and/or poverty reduction in the state? The answer, like
in several other predominantly feudal states, is the erstwhile ruling class, which soon got intothe key positions as politicians, bureaucrats, professionals, traders and the urban elite.
Absence of social movements and regional interest groups (otherwise reflected as relatively
conflict free social-political milieu) may have led to further consolidation of their historically
acquired power. Some of the recent initiatives through civil society organizations or social
movements have set the stage for creating peoples agency for development. However, given
the nature of the state and its polity, much of the energy of these emerging peoples agency is
being spent on resisting some kind of development or the non-compliance and asymmetric
implementation of the pro-poor programmes. This obviously, keeps the agenda of demandinga different kind of development unattended.
While creating agency of the people to demand development is not a one-shot
proposition to be achieved in the short run; however, not recognizing the absence of that may
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make the task almost unattainable. It is in this context that the importance of agency has been
accorded a critical importance for developing the poverty reduction strategy for the state.
An actionable point in the meanwhile is to evolve a strong `culture of independent
monitoring and evaluation with the associated transparency and public debates around that.
The present system of monitoring and evaluation is characterized by two extreme scenarios.
On one hand there is a Departmental system of monitoring and evaluation, which generally
remains influenced by the hegemony of the state with relatively limited scope for rigorous
and transparent processes of evaluation; much of this is often not shared in the public domain.
On the other hand, fresh space is being created for a transparent mechanism through social
audits; this is also likely to remain for at least some time to come under the clutches of those
with authority and power within a highly stratified and hierarchical society such as ours.
Breaking away from these scenarios would necessitate putting in place a system of
independent monitoring and evaluation with multi-stakeholder membership. Acknowledging
the limitations in the public fora would open up a platform for more workable solutions for
improvements in which both the state and the communities will have responsible roles to
play. In any case, being transparent will earn credibility to the state for being on the side of
the people, rather than being compelled to justify the inactions of a vast and multi-layered
state machinery put in the helm of implementing a highly complex and challenging task of
pro-poor governance.
7. Summing Up
On the basis of the above discussions which are distilled from the detailed chapters to
follow we make the following recommendations for Madhya Pradesh, which are by no means
exhaustive. These are grouped by the issues covered, though they are not intended to be
compartmentalized.
Economic growth and Infrastructure
Although income poverty has reduced, it is still fairly widespread except for
one region in the state. Also the level of food inadequacy is fairly high. Therefore,
promoting economic growth is inescapably an important channel for poverty
reduction in the state.
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While infrastructural development plays a significant role in promotion of
economic growth in general and also for improving access to health-and educational
services, that by itself may not yield the desired result as much of the growth potential
in the state is linked to boosting up productive initiatives in the primary sector viz;
agriculture and forestry on which large proportion of the poor depend for their
livelihood.
While a number of initiatives have already been taken up for promoting
agricultural growth, employment and access to forest resources among the tribal
communities in the state, it is imperative that these policies work in tandem with the
larger goals of empowerment, which in turn may help creating/strengthening the
agency of the poor to participate in the process of economic growth and human
development.
Agriculture and Allied Sectors
Since agricultural growth is at the centre stage of poverty reduction, emphasis
on technology and knowledge driven growth in productivity of crops and allied
sectors is inevitable. Dissemination of the already available research findings and
technologies especially for improving the seed quality and agricultural practices in
dry land farming on small landholdings has to be taken up on priority. A detailed
agro-climatic zone specific plan for various farming systems consisting of low
external input/organic agriculture, horticulture, livestock, inland fishery and forestry
will have to be drawn up and institutional support provided.
Concerted efforts need to be made to process agricultural bio-mass a
considerable part of which is wasted or burnt at present for conversion into fertiliser
and energy. This will also reduce carbon emissions from agriculture and contribute to
mitigation of climate change.
Rural markets or "haats" should be developed further and provided
institutionalised support in the form of greater credit and infrastructure fortransforming them into agro-processing centres for post harvest processing and value
addition. These should focus on various components of the farming systems.
Processing and cold chaining of primary products like milk, meat and eggs
for export out of the state and the country. Further development of the cooperative
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federation and its corruption free operation so as to process and market meat and eggs
in addition to milk. This will also ensure cheap nutrition for the poor.
Fodder development on vast tracts of land lying barren with the forest
department or in village commons through joint forest management along with
institutional support to the informal rural livestock markets so as to ensure that the
benefits of such markets reach the small livestock producers who are the most
vulnerable.
Surface Irrigation and Soil and Water Conservation
A programme of command area development must be taken up on a priority
basis under which completion and renovation of canal systems, field channels
and land levelling will have to be undertaken to fully realise the surface water
irrigation potential already created. Once this is done, participatory irrigation
management must be implemented properly and the operation of the centralised
irrigation systems must be made as efficient and equitable as is possible.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme primarily and all other
employment and rural development schemes should be geared to local area
specific soil and water conservation activities on a large scale. Stress should be
laid on mobilising the community for the construction and later maintenance of
the structures.
Particular attention should be given to artificial recharging of groundwater. The
Central Groundwater Board has prepared a detailed district wise National
Master Plan on Artificial Recharge and this needs to be implemented
immediately.
Forest Management
A massive participatory afforestation and conservation programme has to be
undertaken using NREGS funds in the head reaches of all the major riversoriginating in Madhya Pradesh and especially in the Chambal basin which has
become highly denuded. This may involve greater and more effective
implementation of Joint Forest Management Projects in minor forest produce
collection, processing and marketing.
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A special cell should be set up to identify potential projects that can qualify for
carbon credits and then follow up with implementation and earning of credits
under the Clean Development Mechanism.
The settlement of land rights of forest dwellers, mostly Scheduled Tribes, under
the STOFRR Act must be completed with transparency and speed to improve
the livelihood situation of lakhs of tribals.
Seasonal Migration
Proactive measures are necessary to ensure that the migration experience is a
positive one and the poor do not lose out on their entitlements in both their
residence and their destination areas because of migration. All laws and policies
in this regard should be implemented and a special department set up to take
care of the migrants needs as the present labour department is ill equipped and
under staffed for this purpose.
Health and Education
Support local level collective health action by creating and sustaining
community partnerships for health care delivery especially by reaching out to
non-traditional partners.
Create health disaster management network by involving the entire health care
delivery system and the broadest possible inter-sectoral and inter-institutional
collaboration and coordination to reduce the impact of emergencies and
disasters on the health of the people.
Revamp and expand the human resources development (education and training)
network to develop a healthy workforce profile that is adequate in terms of
knowledge and skills for the delivery of health care services necessary to meet
the health needs of the people.
It is essential to make a paradigm shift from outlays to outcome approach forimproving social sector attainments. This should essentially imply that basic
health services for immunization and maternal health as well as basic literacy
have to be ensured. Outcome based monitoring and incentives may help in
achieving the desired shift.
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Strengthen monitoring, evaluation and analysis of health and education status at
household level and at the level of the community with especial emphasis on
identifying disparities in the access and effectiveness of the public service
systems.
In order to address the issue of inadequacy of teaching staff in primary schools,
special emphasis may be given to female teachers. This may open up avenues
for female workers, especially those who are willing to re-enter the job market
at a later stage of their reproductive phase. This may yield double dividends; one
in terms of gender empowerment and another in the form of obtaining stable and
committed teaching staff from the local communities.
Grassroots Governance
The Gram Sabha and small Ward Sabhas in urban areas must be made the
paramount bodies for deciding on the management of all the cultural, social,
economic and political activities of the people.
A massive awareness campaign must be conducted and appropriate institutional
support provided to actualise the immense potential of the provisions under The
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and The Right to Information
Act. The administrative and infrastructural obstacles to the successful
implementation of the NREGS should be addressed and resolved as quickly as is
possible.
Micro-finance and Micro-credit through SHGs are a viable community based
solution to the serious problem of lack of access to cheap institutionalised credit
for the poor. This should be promoted along with stricter regulation of usurious
moneylending. These measures will especially benefit women who are normally
excluded from the development process.
NGOs should be involved in awareness building, training and monitoring andalso in the implementation of pilot projects for communitarian development.
Successful examples of communitarian development implemented in the state
by NGOs should be given publicity and encouragement so that they sustain
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themselves and also provide inspiration to others for replication on a wider
scale.
Rural Database
Presently the rural data base is a non-participatory one and is being maintained
by the Patwaris and other ground level staff in a non-transparent manner.
Consequently the reality of rural deprivation and resource degradation is not
adequately captured in this data base.
The Gram Sabhas should be held regularly to update and validate the rural data
base and make it more relevant for village level planning. Once this validation
by the Gram Sabha takes place the data should be uploaded onto an online
website which should then be available for all.
An independent and transparent monitoring and evaluation system with multi-
stakeholder membership to help creating a platform for moving into the
direction of pro-poor Governance.
References:
Chaurasia, A. (2009), Notes on Poverty in Madhya Pradesh, Background paper preparedfor Madhya Pradesh Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, coordinated by Indira Gandhi
Institute of Development Research, Mumbai.
CROMP (2009), Madhya Pradesh: the State of Children, Child Rights ObservatoryMadhya Pradesh, Bhopal.
Dev, M. and Ravi, C. (2006), Poverty and Inequality: All India and States, 19983-2005,Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No.6, 509- 521.
Shah, A. (2007), Patterns, Processes of Reproduction, and Policy Imperatives forpoverty Reduction in Remote Rural Areas: A Case Study of Southern Orissa in India,Working Paper No. 179, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Ahmedabad.
UNDP (2009), Madhya Pradesh: Human Development Report, Oxford UniversityPress, New Delhi.
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Chapter 3: Economic Growth
The importance of economic growth in poverty reduction lies in the fact that despite
multi-dimensional nature of poverty, economic growth is the engine for all poverty reduction
efforts. Evidence from all over the world clearly indicate that domestic policies have
important effect on sustained economic growth including prudent macroeconomic
management. Macroeconomic stability provides an important precondition for higher
economic growth rates an