Taskforce on poverty to submit report in six months

The taskforce headed by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya to assess poverty and prepare a roadmap for its elimination is likely to submit its report in six months time after discussions with states.
"The taskforce on poverty elimination has prepared a discussion paper and will invite comments from stakeholders and states next week before firming up its recommendations," a source said.
The report, source said, is likely to be finalised in the next six months after completing the consultation process.
The taskforce will also conduct regional consultations where a group states from one part of the country will participate and deliberate on the issues related to defining and eliminating poverty.

This taskforce was constituted in pursuance of a decision taken in the first meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the Governing Council of Niti Aayog, held on February 8, 2015.
The taskforce was initially mandated to finalise its report by June 30, 2015.

According to the discussion paper, the current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line. But this line has been controversial with many observers criticising it as being too low. The controversies led the previous government to appoint the Rangarajan Committee, which recommended higher rural and urban poverty lines.
It said, "Going forward, we can consider four options for tracking the poor. Firstly, continue with the Tendulkar poverty line. Secondly, switch to the Rangarajan or other higher rural and urban poverty lines, thirdly track progress over time of the bottom 30 per cent of the population and lastly track progress along specific components of poverty such as nutrition, housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity and connectivity."

It further said, "While options third and fourth can complement the measurement of poverty using a poverty line, they cannot be substitute for it. Tracking reduction in poverty requires a direct measure of poverty. In turn, this requires us to choose between first and second options."
The paper provided that the strategy for combating poverty must rest on two legs. Firstly, sustained rapid growth that is also employment intensive. Secondly, making anti-poverty programmes effective.
Citing an example, the dicussion paper said that keeping
in view the fact that poor households lag the most in the consumption of protein-rich items such as milk and eggs, it may make sense to offer them option between cash and in-kind transfers under the PDS.

This may be then complemented by an information drive on the importance of a protein-rich diet. This would encourage households to opt for cash and use it to shift in favour of a protein-rich diet.
Likewise, MGNREGA can be made more effective by allowing it to impart skills. This would also pave the way for many workers to exit the programme. Relaxing the proportion of expenditure on materials and allowing the use of contractors in the materials component would greatly improve the quality of assets produced.
During peak season, farmers may be permitted to hire MGNREGA workers by paying 75 per cent of the wages with the balance paid by MGNREGA wage funds. This would lead to more productive use of labour while also spreading MGNREGA wages over more workdays.

Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar, Mobile (JAM) trinity could play a vital role in widening the reach of the government to the vulnerable sections.
Jan Dhan bank accounts under Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), biometric identity cards under Aadhar and accessibility to the accounts through mobile phones promise to revolutionise the anti-poverty programmes by replacing the current cumbersome and leaky distribution of benefits under various schemes by the Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT).
With the Aadhar account permitting aggregation of the information, this would give the government an excellent database to assess the total volume of benefits accruing to each household.

In turn, this information can eventually pave the way for replacing myriad schemes with consolidated cash transfers except in cases in which there are other compelling reasons to continue with in-kind transfers. Therefore, we must rapidly expand the use of JAM trinity.
It said, each Gram Panchayat may be asked to identify five poorest families in the village and endeavour to lift them out of poverty. Panchayat may ensure that these families get all government benefits.
A modest cash transfer for a pre-specified time period may top these benefits. The eventual effort should be to ensure that the families become capable of earning and sustaining above-poverty level income within five to seven years.