Download PDF - Rajasthan Rural Livelihoods Project

Chapter I: IntroductionPoverty management in Rajasthan has been on the agenda of public policy for severaldecades. The most preferred strategy since the 1970s has been the targeted approach,wherein the state identified the poor and designed programmes for them but more with anattitude of dispensing patronage rather than mainstreaming them in the economic activity.These programmes did not seek their participation in planning and implementation thatwould be of direct benefit to them. The targeted approach first manifested in a programmecalled the ‘Antyodaya’ which later became the basis for an all India Programme called theIntegrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), which sought to augment the assetbase of the poor. The IRDP did help some poor near the poverty line but for the remainingit was by and large of little consequence. Similarly, employment generation programmeswere also designed for the poor. Wage employment programmes helped create somecommunity assets but the poor had no say on what infrastructure would benefit them themost. Social services such as education and health were made available but there werelittle efforts to improve the access of the poor to these services. In short, there were veryfew efforts, if any, in building the interface between the delivery system and the poor. Yet,some of the programmes in the 1990s such as the Watershed Development Programmeand the Lok Jumbish in the field of education did set up Village Committees in an attemptto involve local people in management of watershed / schools. Similarly, programmessuch as the Women’s Development Programme sought to conscientise women on theirroles and rights in the public sphere. However, both these programmes in recent yearshave received a set-back as the state again sought to take control of their deliverysystems.This brief introduction to poverty management in the state has been mentioned here tobring out the major difference in the poverty management strategy adopted by the DistrictPoverty Initiative Project (DPIP), namely, mobilising the recipients, who are mainly thepoor, not only in sub project activities but also in democratic and developmentalprocesses. Mobilisation of recipients, therefore, forms the core of the Base Line Surveyand shall be elaborated below after a brief review of the notable features of the DPIP.- 3 -