POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY TN

It is suggested that geographic targeting, leading to identification of districts,
blocks/urban agglomerations, villages/zones/slums, and finally households/individuals
would be the most effective strategy of targeting. Allocation of funds should take into
account the share of targeted beneficiary population in the concerned unit and the extent
of relative deficiency. Allocations should be with reference to specific goals relating to
income deficiency, health, education and gender, rather than on the basis of aggregate
and weighted indices. For improving implementation and allocation efficiency, extensive
use of information and communication technologies should be made.
7.2 Poverty Reduction: Main Challenges in Tamil Nadu
In developing a suitable strategy of poverty reduction in the context of achieving the
MDGs, some of the main challenges and considerations for Tamil Nadu may be
summarised as below. First, Poverty reduction has to aim at a sustained increase in
incomes. Otherwise, as elsewhere in India, even with a successful implementation of a
number of poverty alleviation programmes, there will only be a bunching of people just
above the official poverty line. These people will remain vulnerable to a variety of
exogenous shocks. Further, poverty reduction has to be strategised in a multidimensional
framework covering education, health, access to public services and safe
drinking water. Therefore, fiscal reforms will have to play a key role.
Secondly, in Tamil Nadu, poverty is becoming progressively urbanized. A clearcut
strategy for reducing urban poverty needs to be in place. There are some significant
differences in rural and urban poverty. The rural poverty reduction programmes cannot
be fully replicated in the urban areas. Different strategies need to be developed for the
poor living in the slum and non-slum areas. Apart from income poverty, education of the
children, health and hygiene, and safe drinking water are more significant problems for
the urban poor.
Migration of the rural poor to urban areas is likely to continue unabated as the
share of agriculture is expected to progressively fall while the share of the nonagricultural
sectors, particularly the services sector, will progressively increase. New job
opportunities in the services sectors can be availed of only if the population is suitably
trained and educated. The overall demographic structure is also changing such that the
share of working age population will be increasing in the medium term and the share of
older people will increase in the longer run. These changes require massive investment in
education first and health in the longer run.
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