The following measures can be taken for the eradication of poverty. 1) Control of Population Growth: 2) Higher Economic Growth:and 3) Income Redistribution:
1) Control of Population Growth:
Any number of employment programme cannot provide work for all if our population grows at an alarming rate of 1.9% per year. Six Million persons are added to the labour force every year. The family planning programme has not been very effective in rural areas for reasons unavoidable. Growth of national income is approximately 3.7% per year. Per capital income grows around 1% per year Unless population growth is reduced to around 1%, we cannot make any significant dent on poverty. Hence population growth is to be controlled lock stock and barrel. Immediate check on rapid growth of population is absolutely essential for economic progress in India. Economic planning without family planning will not bear fruit. If man does not check population, population growth will check man’s progress. If population is not checked, our progress would be like writing on sand with waves of population growth washing away all that we have written.
2) Higher Economic Growth:
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Higher economic growth is a necessary condition for poverty alleviation. Population growth remaining constant, higher economic growth will lead to higher per capita income. This will lead to higher standard of living. Hence production has to be increased and economic growth has to be maximized. Adam Smith pointed out the importance of productivity as the key element of economic growth. Hence the pace of economic development must be speeded up. Higher rate of growth necessarily involves fuller and more productive employment of the working force. Hence employment creation is one aspect of the antipoverty policy.
3) Income Redistribution:
Increase in national income cannot merely alleviate poverty. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened despite fifty years of planning. The fruits of economic development has reached nearly 20% of our people. The rich have become richer and the poor have become poorer: According to the world Bank, the total 20% of the house holds share 50% of the national income in India whereas the bottom 20% share only 7% of the national income, This implies heavy concentration of income in the hands of a microscopic minority. The glaring inequality must be reduced if poverty is to be removed. All possible steps should be taken to see that inequality is kept to the minimum. Inequalities are ethically undesirable, morally ignoble socially undependable, economically wasteful, unjust and inefficient and politically explosive. A two pronged attack on inequality is indispensable i.e. leveling down the economic position of the rich and leveling up the economic position of the poor. This will pave the way for removal of poverty.