Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Indian sarpanch dazzles at UN meet !
Indian sarpanch dazzles at UN meet
United Nations: There was a sense of disbelief among ministers and ambassadors from diverse nations when the chairperson of the 11th Info-Poverty World Conference held at the United Nations introduced the jeans-clad Chhavi Rajawat as head of a village in India.
For, from a distance one could easily mistake Rajawat, an articulate, computer-savvy woman, for a frontline model or at least a Bollywood actress. But she is sarpanch of Soda village, 60km from Jaipur, in backward Rajasthan and the changing face of growing dynamic rural India.
The 30-year-old Rajawat, India's youngest and the only MBA to become a village head - the position mostly occupied by elders, quit her senior management position with Bharti-Tele Ventures of Airtel Group to serve her beloved villagers as sarpanch.
Rajawat participated in a panel discussion at the two-day meet at the UN on March 24 and 25 on how civil society can implement its actions and spoke on the role of civil society in fighting poverty and promoting development.
It is necessary to re-think through various strategies of action that includes new technologies like e-services in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in an era where resources have become limited, she told the delegates of the international conference.
"If India continues to make progress at the same pace as it has for the past 65 years since independence, it just won't be good enough. We'll be failing people who dream about having water, electricity, toilets, schools and jobs. I am convinced we can do it differently and do it faster.
"In the past year alone, I and the villagers in Soda have brought about a radical change in the village purely through our own efforts. We have had no outside support - no NGO help, no public, nor private sector help," she said . Please Read More
Poverty - India's 30 year report Card !
An academic study over three decades indicates a disturbing trend in India - poverty is chronic and persistent.
It takes just common sense to see why some people remain poor while others climb out.
Now there is an academic study that maps this even more closely.
Two economist, Professor Aasha Kapur and Professor Shashanka Bhide, have analysed data collected by the National Council of Applied Economic Research over three decades.
First in the 70s, then in 80s and finally in late 90s, researchers went back to the same 3,000 odd families in 260 villages across the country to find out how they had fared.
What they found was deeply disturbing. Between 1971 and 1981, 52 per cent of the poor had remained poor.
While the number came down in the next two decades (1981-1998), at 38.6 per cent it was still alarmingly high. This confirms that in India, poverty is chronic, persistent and often unshakeable.
"There are people in parts of India who have lived in poverty themselves, whose parents are living in poverty and whose children are also going to inherit that poverty. Even though poverty has declined in aggregate at the national level, but the truth is there are people who have lived and are living in poverty. The issue is how do you track people's lives and understand poverty in that context," says Professor Aasha Kapur.
Drivers: What keeps people stuck in poverty?
Maintainers: What keeps people stuck in poverty?
Interrupters: What helps escape from poverty?
Another important finding of the study is that while more people among the Scheduled Castes have been able to escape poverty, fewer among scheduled tribes have been able to do so.
No wonder, remote tribal areas show up as India's hunger spots.
It takes just common sense to see why some people remain poor while others climb out.
Now there is an academic study that maps this even more closely.
Two economist, Professor Aasha Kapur and Professor Shashanka Bhide, have analysed data collected by the National Council of Applied Economic Research over three decades.
First in the 70s, then in 80s and finally in late 90s, researchers went back to the same 3,000 odd families in 260 villages across the country to find out how they had fared.
What they found was deeply disturbing. Between 1971 and 1981, 52 per cent of the poor had remained poor.
While the number came down in the next two decades (1981-1998), at 38.6 per cent it was still alarmingly high. This confirms that in India, poverty is chronic, persistent and often unshakeable.
"There are people in parts of India who have lived in poverty themselves, whose parents are living in poverty and whose children are also going to inherit that poverty. Even though poverty has declined in aggregate at the national level, but the truth is there are people who have lived and are living in poverty. The issue is how do you track people's lives and understand poverty in that context," says Professor Aasha Kapur.
Drivers: What keeps people stuck in poverty?
- High healthcare costs
- Adverse market conditions
- Loss of assets
- High interest loans from moneylenders
- Social expenses, deaths, marriages
- Crop failure
Maintainers: What keeps people stuck in poverty?
- Casual agricultural labour
- Landless households
- Illiterate households
- Large households with more children
Interrupters: What helps escape from poverty?
- More income earning opportunities
- Proximity to urban areas
- Improved infrastructure
- Initial literacy status of household head
- Income from physical assets: cropland, livestock, house
Another important finding of the study is that while more people among the Scheduled Castes have been able to escape poverty, fewer among scheduled tribes have been able to do so.
No wonder, remote tribal areas show up as India's hunger spots.
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