FEATURES NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

Poverty Alleviation
Social Mobilisation A Must

By Balaram Chaulagain

MUCH has been talked about poverty alleviation yet poverty exists in the country and it is on the rise. Eradicating poverty is one of the biggest challenges of all societies, more particularly for all the South Asian nations. Despite the high sounding slogans and announcements frequently propagated to alleviate the massive situation of poverty from South Asian region, the number of people and magnitude of poverty is on the rise.

State
Poverty can be defined as a state of powerlessness to gain control over any one’s own life. To tackle this situation an effective empowerment process through social mobilisation is essential. Though poverty is universal problem, it is more marked in Third World countries like Nepal. High rate of poverty is closely related to the rampant situation of ignorance, illiteracy and corruption besides increasing population together with the decrease in agricultural productivity.

Poverty is a man made problem. By birth no one is neither poor nor rich. The increasing gap between the haves and have-nots is the result of exploitation by an affluent or elite of another person having a relatively low economicstatus.

Recently, a discussion programme on the second policy dialogue on ‘ A pro-poor growth strategy through social mobilisation for poverty eradication in South Asia’ was held in the capital. A galaxy of around 45 experts involved in poverty eradication activities from Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan took part in the two day seminar jointly organised by the National Planning Commission (NPC), Support Activities for Poor Producers of Nepal (SAPPROS) and a Sri Lanka-based South Asian Perspective Network Association (SAPNA).

The seminar was supported by GTZ and KAF from Germany. It was revealed that 40 per cent of the people residing in South Asian countries are living below the poverty line. In the same way, it is an irony to note that the South Asia alone shares 20 per cent of world’s population whereas the production in this region is just around 5 per cent of the total production in the world. The above mentioned bleak scenario of this region glaringly manifest the worst form of socio-economic status of this region.

To address the situation so long as the South Asian countries fail to seek a regional comprehensive solution to combat the poverty high sounding slogans and seminars can do nothing. A strong political commitment with full public participation is essential to fight against the poverty. NGOs and INGOs toocan play crucial role in eradicating poverty.

For the total eradication of poverty, all political leaders irrespective of whether they belong to the treasury or opposition bench should work honestly thereby making their bureaucratic force free from corruption scandals rather discrimination against the poor who have no voice and lack lobby. Poor do not need sympathy rather they need encouragement and awareness and means of self-reliance.

The South Asian Independent Commission for poverty eradication has already been formed under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai with a view to eradicate poverty in the region. Poverty alleviating activities are being launched in SAARC countries in keeping with the commission’s suggeted expert of this field Dr. Poona Wignaraja, the executive chairman of SAPNA, Shrikrishna Upadhyaya, the executive chairman of SAPPROS Nepal and a Bangladeshi expert Dr. Maqsood Ali presented working papers on poverty alleviation through social mobilisation. All of them stressed on the need of social mobilisation through rural micro-credit programme, savings and other participatory programme for poverty eradication.

Although NPC vice-chairman Prithvi Raj Ligal said the Ninth Five Year Plan has given top priority to alleviate poverty. In the list of SAARC nations, Nepal ranks one of the poorest countries having some 45 per cent of the people living below abject poverty line. As such, if we have to root out the deeply rooted poverty from the entire society the rampant situation of corruption, discrimination against poor and destitute and other anomalies should be avoided first. For this, first of all the prime minister along with his subordinate ministers and other top level government bureaucrats must have strong commitment to eradicate the dimensions of poverty. They should be models and source of inspiration otherwise a few NGOs and INGOs alone cannot accomplish the gigantic task of alleviating poverty from the country.

Social mobilisation is panacea to end the rampant situation of poverty which is raising its ugly head more vigorously than before. It is a process in which the poor and marginalised segment of societies are grouped together and enabled. In this connection, the blossoming NGOs may take place intermediary role between the poor and other line agencies like INGOs, the government and so on.

In the Nepalese context, till date, billions of rupees has been spent to raise the economic condition of the poor from government’s and INGOs’ side, still the impact is neutral. The government’s package programme for poverty alleviation like ‘B.P. with the Poor’ and such others should also be launched through NGOs and government should not lag behind to prod the NGOs if they go wrong.

As poverty is cosmopolitan in nature, it should be viewed in a broad way. The unsympathetic and indifferent attitude of the so-called rich and other elite towards the poor should be abandoned. The poorest of the poor should be brought to the mainstream of the society.

Basis
As agriculture is still the back-bone of the national economy, priority should be accorded to boost the agro-based income generating programmes. Rigorous social mobilisation, social praxis and participatory plan of action are believed to be the sole basis of whole poverty alleviation scheme.

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