POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY TN

line to post-office saving banks or rural banks or as a last resort through money orders
direct to the household head.
d. Schemes for Providing Income Generating Assets
One income generating asset capable of producing income in the dwelling itself may be
provided to any BPL family that asks for it. Such as asset can be operated by any
member of the family in spare time and can provide valuable supplementary income for
the family. Such an asset should require minimum maintenance. Recently in Rajasthan a
scheme of providing electricity generating charkha (e-charkha) has been introduced
successfully. The e-charkha is an improvised version of Ambar Charkha designed by
Ekambarnath who hailed from Tamil Nadu. The e-charkha is used for making yarn as well
as for lighting a bulb or producing moderate amount of electricity. The charkha has
equipment to store electricity in its attachment to light up a room for 8 hours. Using the
charkha Rs. 30- 45 can be earned by spinning the yarn. The e-charkha costs only Rs.
8500 and the attachment for producing electricity cost Rs. 1500. A good part of these
can be subsidised by the state government.
6.6 Role of Local Governments in Poverty Reduction
The essence of decentralisation is to transfer functions, finance and functionaries to the
local bodies. This facilitates policy formulation and implementation according to local
needs and priorities leading to more efficient use of resources and delivery of services.
After the enactment of the 73 rd and the 74 th Amendment of the Constitution for
empowerment of rural and urban local bodies, the responsibility for elementary education
was transferred to the gram panchayats and municipal corporations. Tamil Nadu already
had a decentralised system of education service delivery even before the constitutional
amendment came into force. There is also community participation in school education
through village education committees. Teachers were under the control of local bodies,
who paid their salaries, utilising grants received from the government. However from
1981, the teachers in panchayats and municipal schools were regularised as state
government employees.
Decentralisation can help improve the poverty alleviating content of
governmental interventions if:
i. Local governments have the option to select programmes or schemes most suited
to their requirements from among the numerous centrally designed schemes.
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