The notional imperative

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India’s current phase of economic growth has highlighted both the disparities in benefits of growth as well as enhanced capacity of the government to do more for those who may not have benefited directly from growth. If the current bout of inflation is on account of faster growth in demand as compared to growth in production capacity, then we need to be more attentive to the needs of those who may be priced out of the market. A few indices such as the consumer price index for agricultural labour do tell us how the cost of living for the rural poor may be affected by inflation. But such instances are few where economic data capture the impact of economic developments on the poor. Whether it is food, housing, health or education, greater access to these needs by the lower-income population would be the goal of inclusive growth strategies. These would, therefore, be the targets of government expenditure aimed at poverty reduction. These efforts need to be quantified if we must assess the changes in our approach to the problem.

How much do we know about the effort that goes into poverty reduction? Surprisingly, while there are a large number of anti-poverty programmes and schemes in India, information on how much money is spent on poverty reduction is not easy to come by.

The measures to assess the impact of various schemes of the government, or even of economic growth, are indirect. What is measured is essentially the outcome in terms of the extent and intensity of poverty, and very rarely the influencing conditions. Available data determines the extent of understanding, often. But given the purposefulness of government programmes and expenditures on poverty reduction, it is interesting that there are no easily available estimates on how much the government spends on schemes for the poor.