Urban Poverty Alleviation Programmes

 Urbanisation is a modern phenomenon. At the turn of the twentieth century,
 only one-fifth of the world population lived in urban areas. At present urban
 population constitutes more than one-half of the total population of the word.
 Today, in some areas, especially in the economically advanced countries,
 the majority of the people live in cities and towns, while in most others the majority
 will be living in urban areas soon. Recently, the rate of urbanisation has become more
 rapid in the less developed regions. And a greater part of the increase in world urban
 population is contributed by less developed countries. Moreover, much of the
 urban population growth is taking place in big cities. India is no exception to
 the wave of rapid urban growth witnessed by the developing countries in the
 past few decades.
While urbanisation has created serious difficulties even in the
industrialised nations, it has turned out to be virtual disaster in the less developed
countries, today. The principal force that accelerates urbanisation no longer
is industrialistion. In most of the counties in the less developed regions,
including India, there is larger urban growth than is justified by degree of
industrialisation and economic progress by the standard witnessed in the growth
of cities in the Western countries. People are pushed towards the cities from
rural areas to the already overcrowded cities. The relative “over-urbanisation”
is reflected in unemployment and marginal self employment and predominance of
the informal sector. As a result, economic conditions of a vast section of the
urban population in the less developed countries like India remain insecure.
Surveys carried out during the past decade or so indicted that one-fourth to
three-fourths of urban dwellers in these countries live in abject poverty and
squalor in an extremely deplorable living environment without access to basic
amenities and essential services. Recent data show that more than a quarter of
India’s urban population (about 95 million people) is living below the poverty.
Poverty abounds everywhere, in the big cities as well as small towns. In most
of the big cities, migrant workers are predominant among the poor. This segment
of urban poverty, of course, is the extension of rural poverty itself. Low
family income appears to be uniform features in all the cities.
The process of economic development has benefited only the upper-middle sections
of the society much more than the middle, lower-middle, and poorer sections of
society. Therefore, inequality has risen considerably over the years. As the
income earned by the poor is generally insufficient to support the family,
which is generally large, these people live in slums and squatter settlements
in deplorable living conditions and degraded environment. The numerous
anti-poverty measures have failed to make an effective dent on poverty. It is a
common knowledge that many anti-poverty measures have ended with target
setting. They continue to be in the grip of corrupt officials and greedy
politicians, who largely control much of the investment related activities on
anti-poverty programmes. In a way, poverty alleviation programmes are known for
leakage to the various intermediaries than benefit to the people.
Dr. C.Murukadas, Aug 5, 2012