POVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGY TN

Fund, GoTN has created Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Development and Renewal Fund
(TNUIDRF) for infrastructure development assistance to urban local bodies.
c. Structuring Expenditure: The municipal budgets have to provide increased
allocation for slum rehabilitation, city roads, and development. For undertaking capital
expenditure on urban infrastructure, municipal debt may be utilized at least for the larger
cities. As far as health and education are concerned, there are some hospitals and
schools, which may be under the control of the city administration. Children living in slum
areas are often forced to discontinue education and start doing some work. Hygienic
conditions in slum areas are also a challenge. Major expenditure has to go for
dismantling of illegal slums and rehabilitation activities. Location of new schools close to
the clusters where poor may reside will also help.
d. Targeting: The four tier targeting strategy (District-Cities/Town-Slum/Non-slum
Zones/Wards-Households) should focus on towns of a certain size of population, and
devise separate targeting strategies for the slum population and the poor in the non-slum
areas. For the slum population, location-specific schemes may work. For non-slum
population targeting can be for extremely poor households or individuals. Targeting slum
population is more straightforward because the geographic location of the cluster is
identifiable. Non-slum poor are diffused all over the urban agglomerations. Information
from NGOs operating in the concerned areas may be valuable for reaching the urban
non-slum poor. Slum children and children of non-slum poor should be the main targets
for education related strategies.
e. Enhancing Efficiency: Allocation of funds under different schemes should be
according to the estimated number of poor in the slums and the extent of relative
deficiency. For the non-slums poor, in the urban agglomerations separate schemes may
be used. Here, well publicized self-targeting schemes may be most effective. Allocations
should be made separately under respective criteria for health, education, income, and
gender related schemes.
Some specific efficiency enhancing steps are suggested below.
i. Focus has to be on rehabilitation rather than marginal improvement of the slums
where they exist.
ii. Undertake notification and de-notification of slums as this exercise may have
been undertaken quite some time back and several slums may have been
upgraded under various schemes.
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