Poverty and Inequality: Concepts, Data, Policy and Analysis

Poverty is deprivation of basic needs. that determine the quality of life- food clothing, shelter ,safe drinking water etc, It also includes the deprivation of opportunities to health, education, skills, employment etc.
Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. No single explanation has gained universal acceptance. The factors responsible for poverty include:
Historical factors, for example imperialism and colonialism.
Overpopulation .
Growth is not.fast enough to eradicate poverty
Models of growth may be unsuitable for poverty alleviation. For example, capital-intense growth in a labour surplus country
Poverty itself, preventing investment and development.
Widespread reliance on traditional methods of agriculture About 60% of the population depends on agriculture whereas the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is 20%. While services and industry have grown at double digit figures, agriculture growth rate has dropped from 4.8% to 2%
Geographic factors, for example lack of fertile land and access to natural resources.
Anti-poverty schemes not being effective due to institutional and other inadequacies
War, including civil war, genocide
Lack of education and skills.
gender discrimination
Matthew effect- the phenomenon, widely observed across advanced welfare states, that the middle classes tena to be the main beneficiaries or social benefits and services, even if these are primaril targeted at the poor. Matthew effect refers to those already having an asset base benefiting from it while those without it continue to be denied the same.
Eradication of poverty
The strategy of the Government includes the following elements
The main plank of anti-poverty strategy is reducing poverty through the promotion of economic growth. In India, after reforms began in 1991 when growth rates increased, poverty levels fell quite steeply. (NSSO 2005)
Socio economic planning
Food security through the nation wide PDS- largest in the world
Progressive taxation to gamer fiscal resources for spending on poor
Social s,afety net like the. National Social Assistance Programmc(NSAP)
Open society in which poverty is recognized as a national challenge and earnest efforts are made to tackle it( Amartya Sen)
Anti-poverty programmes - NREGA 2005
Massive social sector expenditure for skill building
Decentralization through PRls and Nagarapalikas for better delivery models
Poverty concepts
Tpes of Poverty
Human Poverty is the lack of essential human capabilities-literacy and nutrition.
Income Poverty: The lack of sufficient income to meet minimum consumption needs. The World Bank definers extreme poverty as living on less than one US$ per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day.
Poverty line
It is the level of income below which one cannot afford to purchase all the resources one requires to live. People who have an income below the poverty line have no disposable income.
When comparing poverty across countries, the purchasing power parity exchange rates are used. These are used because poverty levels otherwise would change with the normal exchange rates. Thus, 'living for under $1 a day' should be understood as having a daily total consumption of goods and services comparable to the amount of goods and services that can be bought in the U.S. for $1.
Poverty lines are defined as the per capita monetary requirements an individual needs, to afford the purchase of a basic bundle of goods - only food or food and other goods. The value of this .Qasic basket of goods can be determined in many
ways, for example:
Absolute Poverty is a fixed measure in terms of a minimum calorific requirement plus essential non-food components, if any. It is used in India. Individuals are considered as poor if the per capita real income/consumption of the household to which they belong is below the benchmark poverty line. In India monetary requirement to consume 2100 calories in urban areas and 2400 calories in rural areas per day per person is the absolute poverty line- monthly per capita consumption expenditure below Rs. 356.35 for rural areas and Rs. 538.60 for urban areas.
Relative poverty lines set the line in relation to another variable: the average expenditure or income in a country, for example, the line is derived as 60% of the country's per capita income.
Headcount ratio
The most common standard indicator is the incidence of poverty (also called poverty rate or headcount rate). This describes the percentage of the populallon whose per capita incomes are below the overty line, that is the opulation that
cannot a or to buy a basic basket of items. In many instances, a different poverty line--a much more austere one that generally only includes food items-is applied to derive the extreme poverty rate.
Poverty Gap(PG)
PG measure of the intensity of poverty among the poor: the difference between the mean income among the poor andthe poverty line. This indicator measures the magnitude of poverty as well as its intensity- number of poor and how poor they are. The Poverty Gap Index is the combined measurement of incidence of poverty and depth of poverty. PG is also called the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) index.It is the gap between the average poverty among the poor and the poverty line.
Miserv index
The misery index was initiated by Chicago Economist Robert Barro in the 1970's. It isthe unemploymenfrate aaaedto-the inflation rate. It is assumed that both a higher rate of unemployment and a worsening of inflation cause and intensify the misery. A combination of rising inflation and more people of out of work ("stagflation") implies a deterioration in economic performance and a rise in the misery index.
Planning Commission and Poverty
The Planning Commission as the Nodal agency in the Government of India for estimation of poverty has been estimating the number and percentage of poor at national and state levels. Estimates of poverty are made from the large sample survey data on household consumer expenditure conducted by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The Planning Commission estimated that 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004-2005, down from 51.3% in 1977-1978, and 36% in 1993-1994. The source for this was the 61 st round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the criterion used was monthly per capita consumption expenditure below Rs. 356.35 for rural areas and Rs. 538.60 for urban areas. 75% of the poor are in rural areas with most of them comprising daily wagers, self-employed households and landless labourers,
NSSO and Poverty Estimates
National Sample Survey Organisatiof! (NSSO) collects household consumer expenditure data every five years. Household consumer expenditure surveys are also.conducted annually but the sample size is much smaller. Every five years full surveys on 1,20,000 households are carried out. In the intervening period. "thin" samples of around 20,000 households are surveyed. The "thin" samples do not indicate trends fully.The latest NSSO round was 61st in 2004-05.
The poverty line in India is defined as the monthly expenditure incurred in getting a daily calorie intake of 2,400 calories in rural and 2, 100 calories in urban areas. The 61 st round of the National Sample Survey (NSSO) used the criterion of monthly per capita consumption expenditure below Rs. 356.35 for rural areas and Rs. 538.60 for urban areas
NSSO Methodology
In 1993-94 as in all previous surveys, respondents were asked questions on spending on food items based on a 30-day recall, that is, what they had spent a month prior to the date of the survey. This 30-day recall period has a limitation that the recall period is too long and data could be misleading.
There had been a persistent demand that one-month recall period was too long and the expenditure on fooa was underreported. NSSO responded by changmg the reference period. In the 55th round( 1999-2000), the consumer expenditure for food was recorded for two reference periods, one- week recall and one-month recall. The reference period for clothes, consumer durable etc. was 365 days and for other items it was one month.
Seven-day recall period was considered more realistic, particularly for food items WhIch tor most Indians remains the bulk of the consumption basket. The seven-day recall eriod adopted in the NSSO surve in 1999-2000 for theurst time yielded significantly lower estimates of poverty than throug e use of the 30-day recall period.
It is reported that the poverty ratio, according to the 55th round NSSO data, has fallen to 28% in 1999-2000, from 36% in 1993-94. Success for economic reforms was claimed.
However, experts questioned the claim as the previous methodology( 30 day recall) and the 55th round of 7 day recall are not comparable.
The National Commission of Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), in its report, suggested that 77% of the total population of the country in 2004-05, had per capita consumption expenditure of less than Rs. 20 per day.
Even as poverty reduced after reforms were launched, there are still more than 275 millions below the poverty line. High incidence of poverty in India is a matter of concern in view of the fact that poverty is defined minimally in lndia( in terms of calories consumption) and eradication has been one of the major objectives of the development planning process.
Agricultural wage earners, small and marginal farmers and casual workers engaged in non-agricultural activities, constitute the bulk of the rural poor. Small land holdings and their low productivity are the cause of poverty among households dependent on land-based activities for their livelihood. Poor educational base and lack of other vocaJional skills also perpetuate poverty. Due to the poor physical and social capital base, a large proportion of the people are forced to seek employment in vocations with extremely low levels of productivity and wages. The creation of employment opportunities for the unskilled workforce has been a major challenge for development planners and administrators.
Per capita income
India's per capita income is Rs 38,084 durin 2008-09. That if the country's wealth is distributed equally among its people, a citizen will have Rs.38.084.
The country's per capita income, which is an important indicator of economic development of a nation, was Rs 18,885 during 2002-03.
The growth in the per capita income takes into account the increase in the country's population, which is 115.4 crore by March 2009.
However, after discounting for inflation (at 1999-2000 prices), the per capita income is expected to rise to Rs 25,661, representing an increase of 5.6 per cent.
NC Saxena Committee
The committee chaired by NC Saxena, Supreme Court-appointed food commissioner presented its draft report in mid-2009 in which it pointed out that 23% of the poor people did not hold any ration cards.
The panel recommended that 50% of India's population be given below- poverty-line cards-thai is to double the population that benefits from the social sector schemes - both existing as well as those on the anvil like the ambitious Food Security Act. Thus, it suggests expansion of the social security net which means fiscal and administrative challenges.
While advocating exclusion of large number of families from the BPL lists, the committee has recommended that those families having double the land of the district average of the agricultural land or two wheeler or one running bore well or income tax payers would be deleted from the BPL lists.
While pointing out that the present poverty line which allows only 6.52 crore BPL cards is flawed, the committee has recommended a poverty line tlfat would allow 50% of the country's population to get BPL cards as compared to the 28% at present. The panel has recommended.that some disadvantaged communities be given BPL cards automatically. These include chronically vulnerable groups, such as households with members having tuberculosis, leprosy, disability, mental illnesses or HIV/AIDS and others, designated 'primitive tribe', designated dalit groups, homeless household etc.
The rural development ministry in 2008 appointed a committee headed by M Shankar to ascertain the number of the poor people in order to effectively identify beneficiaries for the Centre's programmes aimed at poverty alleviation .. NC Saxena headed the committee after Mr.Shankar resigned.
The mandate of the committee was also to look at revising the parameters Iaid out by the earlier Sanjeeva Reddy committee to calculate the BPL figures in the states.
The committee has recommended that survey for BPL rural families to be undertaken across the country during August 2009-January 2010 as work on census 2011 would start from next year requiring large number of field staff.
Officially, there are two sets of BPL estimates in India, one made by the Planning Commission using NSSO data on household consumption expenditure and the other by the rural development ministry through a state-level BPL house-to-house census.
The mismatch between the two, with Planning Commission progressively lowering poverty estimates while the states push higher numbers. has been a source of controversy. The Centre allocates resources for BPL schemes based on the figures of the Planning Commission.
The latest poverty ratios released by Planning Commission based on 61st round of NSSO in 2004-5 estimate that 28.3% households in the rural areas were living below poverty line.
The Centre has notified 13 new parameters for defining Below Poverty Line (BPL) category of people in the country. It has done away with the earlier definition based on food calories or annual earnings.
The revised definition is based on landliolding, type of dwelling, clothing, food security, hygiene, capacity for buying commodities, literacy. minimum wages earned by the household, means of livelihood, education of children, debt, migration and priority for assistance. The matter had been stayed by the Supreme Court and has only now been vacated.
Inequality
When discussing poverty, inequality often refers to the income gap between the rich and poor of society. the greter the gap, the greater the inequality. It essentially refers to disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income-among individuals and groups within a nation and amont nations.
It may result from the·operation of the economic system, access to assets, nature of laws, education and skills, social fac!ors like caste and gender etc.
Lorenz Curve
The Lorenz curve was developed by Max O. Lorenz as a graphical representation of income inequality. It can also be used to measure inequality of income or assets many other facility.
The Lorenz curve is used to calculate the Gini coefficient which is the numerical indicator of inequality in a country. Gini coefficient is derived by taking the following tow
area between the line of perfect equality and the Lorenz curve(a)
area between the line of perfect equality and the line of perfect inequality(b)
Gini Coefficient
To computer the Gini Coefficient, we first measure the area between the Lorenz Curve and the 45 degree equality line. This area is divided by the entire area below the 45 degree line (which is always exactly one half). The quotient is the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality. The Gini index is the Gini coefficient expressed as a percentage, and is equal to the Gini coefficient multiplied by 100.
For a perfectly equal distribution, there would be no area between the 45 degree line and the Lorenz curve -- a Gini coefficient of zero. For complete inequality, in which only one person has any income (if that were possible) the Gini coefficient would be one. Real economies have some, but not complete inequality, so the Gini coefficients for real economic systems are between zero and one.
Gini coefficients: Sweden 0.250, Gennany 0.283, India 0.325, France 0.327, Canada 0.331, Australia 0.352, UK 0.360, United States 0.408, China 0.447 and Russia 0.456.
Ahluwalia-Chenery Walfare Index
GDP may grow and the distribution of wealth may in fact worsen making the rich richer and the poor poorer. Thus, inclusive growth and not merely growth is required. An index that measures how all social groups are impacted by growth is necessary.
This problem was recognized by Montek Singh Alhuwalia. Alhuwalia's solution, the Ahluwalia-Chenery Walfare Index, measures how each social group is impacted from the prosperity. It is an alternative measure of income growth. one that gave equal weight to growth of all sections of society.
Economic reforms, globalization and inequality
In India the LPG since 1991 contributed to prosperity but the rich have become richer faster than the poor improved. That is, even while poverty levels reduced impressively, inequality has grown too.
When inequality. is growing, economic growth will not achieye its potential in reducing poverty. Steep inequality damages the long-term prospects for economic growth. by creating conflict or instability. and it also limits growth by restricting the number of people who can participate in markets.
To examine why growth is not reducing inequality: income growth is concentrated in certain urban centers,. and those whose incomes increase are usually already above average in income and education. The reality is that those best positioned to gain from new economic opportunities are the educated urban-dwellers. On the other hand, the poor rely mainly on agriculture, and the agricultural sector has not been growing as fast as other sectors in most of Asia.
The current context of new technologies, market-oriented reforms and globalization has not favored the agricultural sector. Other causes of the agricultural sector's lackluster growth include: the decrease in transfers of new technology to farmers, and governments that invest little in agriculture and do little to encourage private investment in the sector.
Given that high levels of inequality are partly the result of government policy. government should address inequalities by introducing policies thaT ensure labour intensive growth; backward region development; social security; increased public investment in agriculture . Skills and training programs etc.
For millions of children, inequality means not having access to adequate nutrition. health, and basic education. Therefore, public policy has huge challenges in providing these services.
ICDS, SSA, NRHM, Mahatma Gandhi Backward Region Development Fund, Bharat Nirman etc are the initiatives in public policy by Government to bring down the divides.
In sum, main reasons for widening wealth gaps in recent years are :
stagnation in agriculture while the economy is growing
discrepancy in investment between urban and rural areas which favoured better-educated, better-off urban populations.
Improvements in rural infrastructure were being held back by government policies which deterred private investment.
Unevenness in.growth in incomes across urban and rural areas, leading and lagging regions in the country, for example coastal and interior, and highly educated households and the less educated are important factors associated with increases in inequality.
Adverse impact of inequality
Growing inequalities can dampen growth due to potential instability; weaken social cohesion.
Urban-dominated growth in India has caused social friction as a result of the high levels of migration to cities and a shortage of foreign investment in more isolated areas.
In societies where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, there is danger of policy levers being capturedby the rich for their own benefit and a weakening of the institutional foundations of the growth process.
According to the ADB, absolute and relative inequality have widened. Although basic poverty levels have fallen as economy expanded, the living standards of the wealthiest in society have improved at a much faster rate compared to the poor. In a region as dynamic and vibrant as India, low growth in incomes of the poor is reflective of weakness in the pattern of growth. Incomes of the rich or top 20 percent have increased much more than those of the poor or the bottom 20%.
That is, relative inequality is increasing.
Public Policy Challenge
ADB analyses the challenges to the government as follows:
Inequalities in life start early and they begin with extreme circumstances that deny millions the opportunity to have adequate nutrition, health and basic education. Governments must ensure their health and education programmes were "targeted" and implemented well. More spending is needed on education, training and healthcare to alleviate the situation. Government should implement complementary policies to counter negative impact of market-oriented reforms, such as social protection mechanism and skills and training programmes. There is a need to step up investment through PPPs to develop new economic activities and industries that generate employment opportunities that do not bypass the poor.
Public policy should also focus on radically improving the quality of basic health care and education. The key challenge to public policy here lies on not just increasing the quantum of public expenditures, but the outcomes are satisfactorythe target group is reached.
Summary
The growing wealth and wealth gap are a byproduct of globalization. which has brought higher incomes to urban, skilled, English-speaking workers in China. India and other countries, the bank's report said.The gap could slow the spread of prosperity, because the poorest people have less access to education, health care. bank loans and other things needed to benefit from economic growth. We have to invest in creating opportunities, as well.as investing in broadening access to
opportunities.
Relative inequality refers to proportionate differences in incomes, while absolute inequality refers to actual rupee differences in incomes.
Wealth distribution in India is uneven, with the top 10% of income groups earning 33% of the income. The 2007 report by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 25% ofIndians, or 236 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day.
Inequality in China and Nepal with Gini Coefficients of 47 are the highest in Asia, while India has a Coefficient of 36(2008)
Progress on Poverty
Year
Round
Poverty Rate (%)
1977-78
32
51.3
1983
38
44.5
1987-88
43
38.9
1993-94
50
36.0
1999-00
55
26.9
2004-05
61
27.5
Eleventh Five Year Plan and Poverty
The Eleventh Five Year Plan has set the growth target for the economy at 9% per year for the Plan period (2007-12-) and aims at putting the economy on a sustainable growth trajectory with a growth of approximately 10% by the end of its period. The central vision of the' Eleventh Plan is to trigger a development process, which ensures broad based improvement in the quality of life of the. people, especially the poor, the· Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes minorities, etc, The Government is implementing a number of anti-poverty programmes, such as wage employmeIlt and asset generation programmes to raise the income of poor, in addition to the income generated from the general growth process. In alleviating poverty and improving the standard of living of the poor. the major schemes and programmes being implemented include: (a) National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which provides a legal guarantee of at least 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household. poor and non-poor, whose adult members' volunteer to do unskilled manual work, (b) Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, a holistic programme covering all aspects of self-employment, (c) Indira Awaas Yojana, which provides assistance for construction of dwelling units, (d) Integrated Child Development Services. which seeks to provide an integrated package of health, nutrition and educational services to children up to six years of age, pregnant women and nursing mothers. (e) Midday Meal Scheme, introduced with a view to enhancing enrolment retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among the children.
The lawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which is the main vehicle for raising the level of infrastructure and utilities in the cities, aims is to create economically productive, efficient, equitable and responsive cities: it provides affordable shelter and decent living and working conditions to the poor and for helping them to develop self-employment enterprises. The Swaran Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yoj ana provides gainful employment to the urban poor.
The Targeted Public Distribution Systein provides food grains at reduced prices to the poor. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana provides food grains to the poorest of the poor families at a highly subsidized rate.
Union Budget 2009-10 is designed to ensure 12 million new jobs each year and reduce poverty by halfby 2014.
Union Budget 2009-10 and poverty eradication
Union Budget 2009-10 is designed to ensure 12 million new johs each year and reduce poverty by hal f by 2014.
During 2008-09. NREGA provided employment opportunities for nwrc than 4.47 crore households as against 3.39 crore households covered in 2007-08. An allocation of Rs. 39,100 crore for the year 2009-10 for NREGA has been made. which amounted to an increase of 144% over 2008-09 Budget Estimates. NRFGA funds are utilized for watershed management and raimvater harvesting.
The Food Security Act would ensure that every family living below the poverty line in rural or urban areas will be entitled by law to 25 kilos of rice or wheat per month at Rs. 3/- per kilo.
Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) is being restructured as the National Rural Livelihood Mission to make it universal in application. focused in approach and time bound for. poverty eradication hy 2014-15.
Seeing that 22,000 Self-help groups (SHGs) are currently linked with banks, the Government has proposed to enroll at least 50% of all rural women in India as members of Self-help groups (SHGs) over the next five years.
A new scheme Rajiv Awas Mission for the urban poor has been initiated in the Budget. It helps the government goal of "slum free" India. Rajiv Awas Yojana, the special housing scheme for the urban poor and slum dwellers will be on the lines of Indira Awas Yojana for the rural areas.
Social security
Certain social conditions need pr.otection to prevent further distress- old age. poverty, unemployment, disability etc. Government provides social protection by way of wage employment, food grain either free or at affordable prices, old age pension etc. In some cases there is social insurance- disability etc.
In social insurance people receive benefits or services in recognition of contributions to an insurance scheme. These services include provision for retirement pensions,disability insurance, etc. Public distribution system in India is a social security example.
Social safety net is similar. It involves a collection of services provided by the state or other institutions including welfare, unemployment benefit, universal healthcare, homeless shelters etc to prevent individuals from falling into poverty beyond a certain level. For example, NREGA in India.
For many decades now, there have been laws in India that provided social security.
Workmen's compensation Act 1923 : A beginning was made in social security with the passing of the Workmen's Compensation Act in 1923. The Act provides for payment of compensation to workmen and their dependents in case of injury and accident (including certain occupational disease) arising out of and in the course of employment and resulting in disablement or death.
Maternity benefit scheme:The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 regulates employment qfwomen in certain establishments for a certain period before and after childbirth and provides for maternity and other benefits.
Gratuity scheme :Thc Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972provides for paymenl of gratuity at the rate of 15 days' wages for each completed year of service subject to certain maximum.
Employees state insurance scheme : The Employees' State Insurance Act provides medical care in kind and cash benefits in the contingency of sickness, maternity and employment injury and pension for dependents in the event of the death of a worker because of employment injury.
Employees provident fund :Retirement benefits in the form of provident. fund, family pension and deposit-linked insurance are available to employees.
Employees Pension scheme
Aam Admi Bima Yojana
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana
Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008
Major Anti Poverty, employment generation and basic services programmes
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
The PMGSY was launched in 2000 as a 100 per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme with the primary objective of providing all- weather connectivity to the eligible unconnected habitations in the rural areas. The programme is funded mainly from the accruals of diesel cess in the Central Road Fund. In aCldition. support of the multilateral funding agencies and the domestic financial institutions is being obtained to meet the financial requirements of the programme. About 1,42,750 kilometre-long roadworks have been completed with a cumulative expenditure of Rs. 27,382.24 crore.
Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
This scheme aims at providing dwelling units, free of cost. to the poor families of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, freed bonded labourers and also the non SC/ ST persons below the poverty line in rural areas. The scheme is funded on a cost sharing basis of 75:25 between the Centre and the States. During the current financial year, Rs. 4,032.70 crore have been earmarked for release to DRDAs under Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) for construction of 21.27 lakh houses. As per the information received from the State Governments. 9.39 lakh houses have been constructed up to November 2007.
Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)
The Swamjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched in April 1999 after restructuring the Integrated Rural Development Programme (lRDP) and allied programmes. It is the only Self Employment Programme currently being implemented for the rural poor. The objective of the SGSY is to bring the assisted swarozgaris above the poverty line by providing them income generating assets through bank credit and Government subsidy. The scheme is being implemented on cost sharing basis of 75:25 between the Centre and States. Up to December 2007, 27.37 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) have been formed and 93:21 lakh swarozgaris have been assisted with a total outlay of Rs. 19,340.32 crore.
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)
The Sampooma Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) was launched on September 25, 2001. The objective of the programme is to provide additional wage employment in the rural areas as also food security, alongside creation of durable community. social and economic ·infrastructure in the rural areas. In 2007-08 up to December 31, 2007, the number of person-days of employment generated under SGRY was 11.60 crore while the Centre's contributions in terms of cash and foodgraiil component up to December 31, 2007, were Rs. 1,142.27 croreand 9.55 lakh tonnes, respectively. Under the special component, about 0.55 lakh tonnes of foodgrain have been released to calamity hit States in the current year up to December 200.1. SGRY programme in 330 districts has already been subsumed in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) (200 districts in tirst phase during the year 2006-07 and 130 additional districts in second phase during 2007-08). SGRY programme will be entirely subsumed in NREGS with effect from April 1, 2008.
Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY)
In December 1997. the Urban Self-Employment Programme (USEP) and the Urban Wage Emploment Programme (UWEP), which are the two special components of the Swama Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana. were substituted for various programmes operated earlier for urban poverty alleviation. The fund allocation for the scheme was Rs. 344 crore during 2007-08 and Rs. 256.41 crore has been released up to December 4, 2007. During 2007-08, under USEP, 0.44 lakh urban poor were assisted to set up micro / group enterprise and 0.60 lakh urban poor were imparted skill training up to end of November 2007. Under UWEP. the mandays of employment generated was 6.77 lakh up to end of November 2007. Cumulative coverage of beneficiaries under the Community Structure Component was 358.13 lakh up to end of November 2007.