National 7 (Spotlight Weekly)

Poverty alleviation: A rising subject matter in Nepal

By Dr.Niranjan Prasad Upadhyay

What is poverty eradication? : Poverty eradication is often used interchangeably in the development literature. Poverty, essentially, has three closely interrelated aspects: “poverty of money”, “poverty of access” and “poverty of power.” These make the working, living and social environments of the poor extremely insecure and severely limit the options available to them to improve their lives. Recently, experts and policy makers have stressed on the need to bring micro-finance resources to the rural parts of the country to cope with the worsening poverty of the country. Furthermore, UNDP report indicates that Asian people still remain hungry because their daily food intake is barely sufficient to meet the minimum energy requirement. Mohan Man Saiju, Vice -Chairman of Poverty Alleviation Fund, has lauded the efforts of micro finance in the poverty alleviation. Also he has insisted that such schemes have played a key role to empower the deprived people in rural parts.

Leaders in the developed and developing world admit their commitment to “poverty eradication,” but none are willing to address the systemic causes of poverty. Moreover, the political and corporate elites at the helms of the world economy have a powerful interest in maintaining the economic status quo. In fact, it is an uphill task for the government to address poverty as the requisite infrastructures for economic activities are still not in sight in the country, except in the urban areas.

Poverty alleviation and good governance

Good governance has always had positive and direct effect on the reduction of poverty. Good governance accomplishes this in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law. It holds eight key features that is participatory, rule of law, transparency, responsiveness, consensus oriented, equity and inclusiveness, responsive, effectiveness and efficiency, and accountable. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future desires of society.

Tenth Plan and poverty alleviation mechanism

The Tenth plan has emphasized on effective implementation and monitoring mechanism in the course of poverty alleviation. Some of the mechanisms formulated include (i ) preparation of annual poverty monitoring report ( ii ) initiation of special monitoring mechanism for social inclusion and regional development (iii) development and monitoring of four monthly intermediate output indicators of major public expenditure components (iv) initiation of immediate action plan –a list of critical policies for quick implementation (v) designing of a policy matrix to link priority activities of the plan with output indicators and (vi) decentralization. In the milieu of Tenth Plan, Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission insists that the implementation modalities initiated are expected to succeed particularly in delivering basic services, enhancing the quality of life of the poor people and promoting economic and social inclusion of deprived communities and regions.

Gender dimension and e-commerce in the context of poverty alleviation

Poverty also has a gender dimension. In most countries, the poorest of the poor tend to be households headed by women. Even within the family unit, the poverties of money, access and power vary based on gender, with women and female children suffering more than their male counterparts. Thus, to meaningfully measure poverty, disaggregated data and information are often needed, which in many countries do not exist.

Moreover, e-commerce provides enormous opportunities for directly linking the micro-manufacturing of the poor to businesses and consumers in developed economies. While the individual micro-entrepreneur may find it beyond his or her capacity to establish such links, groups of micro-entrepreneurs, perhaps as cooperatives, could enter such relationships. In fact, e-commerce may be helpful in the course of poverty alleviation.

World Bank Report and poor people

The World Bank report stresses that poor people are more vulnerable than others to risks, and lack ways to cope with them. The report maintains that the high degree of vulnerability of poor people perpetuates poverty in a vicious cycle. South Asia is home to the largest number of the worlds’ poor. The report stresses that poor people are primarily located in rural areas where social protection programs like insurance rarely exist, they are more vulnerable to poverty and are exposed to a variety of risks, like crippling illness and death, economic downturn, conflict, natural disasters, unemployment, harvest failures, floods, drought, and plagues. Among the very poor, the hardest hit includes children, the elderly, widows—and women in general because of their persistent lack of decision-making power—the chronically ill, and the disabled, says the report. In Pakistan, for example, a vulnerable population of 45 million makes up 25 percent of those in poverty, and they are on the edge of falling deeper into poverty in large numbers as a result of such shocks.

The bottom line is that a poor does not have enough income to buy goods and services required to fulfill his or her minimum basic needs. Nepalese researchers have pinpointed diversified factors contributing to poverty in Nepal they are high population growth, inadequate socio-economic infrastructure, corruption, poor delivery of services, low productivity and inefficient use of resources, lack of political commitment, lack of programs related to poor, prevalence of fatalism among the poor, poor management programs, lack of dedication towards work, lack of effective research, lack of monitoring mechanism etc.

Psychological perspectives on poverty

Poverty is a entirely social phenomenon. It is dealt and described by different social researchers by their own perspectives. Psychologists deal poverty on the basis of basic need approach. The need refers motivation. In essence, primary human needs are the indispensable and central part of the human beings. Psychologists urge that when human being is deprived of water, air, food, sleep and shelter then his or her behavior leads to poverty and disturbs his or her mental equilibrium. As a result, the individual chooses different paths of life like child labor, prostitution, drug trafficking, looting and other antisocial activities. In fact, deprivation is a certain deficiency experienced by the individual as a result of disadvantages emanating from different sources such as society, culture, economy, caste and religion. Deprivations of these factors cause serious physical as well as psychological damages. The damage increases as the duration of deprivation increases. Many researchers have analyzed deprivation and its consequences emphasizing only on certain aspects, e.g., cultural deprivation, psychological deprivation, social deprivation etc.

(Dr. Upadhyay is a Joint Secretary at the Public Service Commission)