India’s anti-poverty programmes stifled by corruption, mismanagement
(May 20, 2011) India spends more on programmes for the poor than most developing
countries, but it has failed to eradicate poverty because of widespread corruption
and faulty government administration, the World Bank has said. A nearly 400-page
study released by the Bank on Wednesday, says that India spent 2 percent of its gross
domestic product, or $28.6 billion last year, on social programmes to alleviate and
prevent poverty, a higher percentage than any other country in Asia and about three
times China’s spending. The programmes, central to the Congress party-led coalition
include food distribution and health insurance initiatives that are supposed to reach
hundreds of millions of households. One of the primary problems, the World Bank said,
was “leakages” - an often-used term in development circles that refers to government
administrators and middle men stealing money, food and benefits. The bank said that
59 percent of the grain allotted for public distribution to the poor does not reach
those households. Instead of distributing food, the government might be better off
giving out food stamps or cash transfers that can be easily traced through technology,
the World Bank said. The report was written at the “request of the government of
India” and with full participation from various government bodies, the report said.
India, the world’s the second-fastest growing major economy, after China, has had
an economic boom in recent years that is transforming urban areas and creating a new
class of extremely wealthy people. But social problems, including poverty, disease
and illiteracy, remain widespread. Though home to 69 billionaires, India has about
455 million of its over a billion people living on less than $1.25 a day, according
to the World Bank’s poverty line. A United Nations study released last year found
more people living below the poverty threshold in eight states in India than in all
of sub- Saharan Africa.