Poverty alleviation in rural India

Programme

Poverty alleviation in rural India

Poverty remains a chronic condition for over a third of India’s rural population, although the incidence of rural poverty has steadily declined over the last years, from 41.8% in 2004-2005 to 33.8% in 2009-2010, according to figures from the Government of India Planning Commission.  A major cause of poverty among India’s rural people is the lack of access to productive assets and financial resources, limited access to basic social services and the absence of proper physical and social infrastructure.

This EIAS Briefing Seminar will focus on the evolution of rural poverty since the 1950s and the initiatives and strategies put in place by the Indian government, NGOs and the international community to eradicate the high levels of poverty prevailing in rural India. It will also seek to address what role the liberalisation of the Indian economy since the 1990s has had on poverty levels.

Download presentation Prof. em. Lodewijk Berlage (pptx)