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World Bank lauds India's success in poverty alleviation, to launch new study

The World Bank is launching a new study on poverty in India, which will involve fresh estimation of the levels and indicate reasons for stagnancy in poverty proportions.

A World Bank team in New Delhi said on Monday that an objective of the study is to revise the framework for poverty reduction in India, integrating new thinking with an analysis done in preparation for the World Development Report and with new and ongoing work in India.

The economists said the WDR will revise what does and does not work in reducing poverty. It will involve a process of widespread consultation and research over the coming 18 months. A global Internet dialogue is underway and the just-concluded India Workshop was one important initiative to launch a dialogue on these issues ''in a country that is crucial to world poverty''.

The economists said the workshop was concerned with global-scale dissemination of the existing World Bank and United Nations Development Programme work on poverty and human development. More importantly, it will have a critical role in shaping the bank's new work on poverty in India, and more generally, on poverty worldwide.

The workshop was designed to generate discussion and comments from a wide range of stakeholders within India, not to seek for a convergence of views but rather to listen to many voices from within the Indian community. Workshop participants included government officials, researchers and members of the academic community, non government organisations as well as bilateral and multinational agencies.

The economists said the messages of the two recent World Bank reports on poverty are clear. They said India confronts an enormous challenge in reducing poverty and improving living conditions for its millions of poor people.

''Some regions of the country are doing well and there are important lessons to be learned from these successes. However, progress has been slow in other regions and more work needs to be done in order to understand the constraints and opportunities for more rapid growth and sustained poverty reduction in lagging regions.''

The economists said early work done in preparation for the WDR argues for an attack on poverty on three fronts. First, create opportunities for sustainable growth and improvements in material well-being. Second, provide security for households and individuals who suffer from idiosyncratic shocks or are excluded from the growth process. Third, ensure empowerment of the poor so that they make maximum use of the expanding opportunities available to them.

''Endowments, market forces and institutions are recognised as fundamentally important in determining the conditions of poverty as well as the success or failure of efforts to reduce it.''

They said this broad framework will be explored in the forthcoming India poverty study. ''The conceptual thinking and lessons learned from efforts to implement pro-poor policies and programme in India will inform and shape the global WDR on poverty, while the accumulated wealth of international experience may contribute to thinking on India's future programmes and policies.''

UNI

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