Poverty, inequality and public policy in India

Poverty can be defined as a social phenomenon in which a section of society is not able to satisfy even its basic necessities of life. The eradication of poverty has been on India's national agenda since the adoption of the Five Year Planning system in 1950. The most recent 1991 round of economic reform efforts was undertaken to achieve a higher rate of sustained economic growth with equity, and directly implement poverty alleviation programmes. This paper discusses approaches used for estimation qf poverty as well as the causes of and trends in Indian poverty, before and after the 1991 reforms. It also considers the need for sustained political and social commitment to implement policy measures designed to eliminate inequality by adopting poverty reduction strategies of investing in human capital, for example primary education, women's education and empowerment, health, and improving economic irifrastructure facilities through public works programmes.