Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the release of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) offers an opportunity to reflect upon the strategy for uplifting the lives of India’s poor and vulnerable.
While great strides have been made to improve the economic lives of the poor, deprivation of one kind or another is still high: for example, about 30 percent of households encounter at least two out of the SECC’s seven measures of deprivation[1] and 49 percent of households at least one. Improving this situation is the number one priority of this government.
But how can we achieve our objective most effectively and quickly? A permanent, formal sector, well-paid job is the best anti-poverty measure. The SECC reflects this conclusion: out of the seven measures of deprivation, the one that leads to the greatest amount of deprivation is being a landless household that derives a major part of its income from manual casual labour.
The way to eliminate deprivation is to achieve rapid economic growth of 8-10 percent so that good jobs are created for all Indians quickly. That is why the government is promoting investment.
To re-inforce the effects of growth on alleviating deprivation, but also to help those that may be left out, we need targeted schemes and policies. The government has been helping the poor by giving them subsidies. But these are poorly targeted and leaky.
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