Strategy Paper on Poverty Eradication_Government of Andhra Pradesh

Strategy Paper on Poverty Eradication

Government of Andhra Pradesh

Vision 2020 envisages that by the year 2020, people of Andhra Pradesh will all

have tremendous opportunities to achieve prosperity and well being and enjoy a

high quality of life. Every individual will be able to lead a comfortable life, filled

with opportunities to learn, develop skills and earn a livelihood. Poverty will have

been eradicated and current inequalities will have disappeared. Women,

scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward classes and minorities will be

empowered and the rights of the child protected, while the old, infirm and the

disabled will be able to lead a secure and dignified life.

Longevity in the State will rise to 69 years (from 62.6), infant mortality will be

reduced to 10 (from 66 per thousand live births), almost every person will be

literate, every child will go to school, and every one will have the opportunity to

grow to his full potential

Current Status

The present conditions are far from this vision though we have achieved a great

amount of progress in many aspects of quality of life. Longevity has risen from 45

to 62.6 between the 1960s and 1990s. The number of deaths per thousand

population has been reduced from 15.8 to 8.3 between 1970s and 1990s. Infant

Mortality rate has been halved between the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s (from

123 to 63). This improvement in the quality of life has not been even across the

sections of people: the poor are behind the rest. Among the poor, the quality life

is particularly low for the vulnerable sections such as scheduled castes, scheduled

tribes, women and children.

The proportion of poor people in the State has declined from 49 percent to 30

percent between 1973-74 and 1993-94 according to the State Government’s

estimates. Relative deprivation and under development is adverse if we consider

non-income indicators like literacy and infant mortality.

While the literacy rate was 21.19% in 1961, it had increased to 44.09% in 1991

and in the latest national sample survey (53rd round) conducted in 1997 the

literacy rate was 54%. Female literacy rate has increased from 12.3% in 1961 to

43% in 1997. The drop out rates at primary stage of education have been

steadily going down but the number of children dropping out of the system is still

quite high. Out of every hundred children enrolled in Class-I, only 60 are

completing Class-V and only 42 are going on to complete Class-VII. The drop out

rate is higher in the case of girls as compared to boys. The drop out rates among

S.Cs. & S.Ts. are coming down over the years but only 32% Scheduled Caste

children and 18% of Scheduled Tribe children are able to complete Class VII.

Today there are an estimated 180 lakh illiterates in the age group of 15-50 years

and 109 lakh adult illiterates in the 15-35 years age group.

The poor education indicators are of serious concern, as the poor will find it

difficult to meet the skill requirements of jobs being created in the non-farm

economy in the future.

There have been steadfast efforts at reduction of poverty and improvement in the

quality of life of the people of the State.

Human Resource Development

Programmes for provision of safe drinking water, environmental sanitation and

expansion of medical and health facilities have contributed to substantial

improvements in the health conditions of the people.

Children immunised has risen from 54% to 65% between 1992-93 and 1998-

99. The Integrated Child Development Scheme, implemented in 251 of the 330

erstwhile Blocks in the State provides nutrition support to children and their

mothers during pregnancy and lactation, facilitates enrollment of children in

schools, health awareness and livelihood skills to women and adolescent girls.

The program covers 6.82 lakh women and 29 lakh children. This has contributed

significantly to the sharp reduction of infant mortality and in the number of

children suffering severe malnutrition.

The maternal mortality has declined from 3.8 in 1993 to 1.54 in 1997-98. Crude

Birth Rate has reduced from 24.1 to 22.3 per 1000. Total Fertility Rate has

reduced from 2.6 to 2.5 per women.

Out of the 69,732 rural habitations with a population of 534 lakhs, 55472

habitations with a population of 384 lakhs have been provided with safe drinking

water facilities. All the 109 Municipalities and 6 Municipal Corporations have piped

water supply with a per day per capita supply of 19 gallons as against the

national norm of 22 to 30 gallons per day. In order to augment water supply in

the municipal towns 53 water supply improvement schemes have recently been

taken up and 37 completed; with the completion of the rest, the situation is

expected to improve substantially.

Housing for the poor has been an important programme and nearly 35 lakh

houses for the poor have been built in the sixteen years ending 1998-99. In the

past four years the number of dwelling units built has gone up to 3.5 lakhs per

year.

A major initiative of the State to improve the nutrition status of the poor is the

Subsidised Rice Scheme. This scheme covers 113 lakh families for whom 20 kgs

of Rice is supplied at a highly subsidised rate for which the State government

spends about Rs 1000 crores per year.

School facilities have been substantially enhanced and the enrollment of children

in primary schools has risen from 73 lakhs to 91 lakhs between 1989-90 and

1999-2000. One lakh additional teachers have been added to the system in the

last four years and 50,000 vidya volunteers are being deployed for mobilizing,

enrolling and retaining children in schools.

Self employment programmes

To provide tangible income earning assets and skills 8.40 lakh families have been

assisted since 1995-96 under IRDP/SGSY. 48 lakh poor women are accessing

self-employment opportunities through DWCRA program. 33,000 CMEY groups

are assisted to access self employement opportunities since 1996 with an

investment of Rs 342 crores. Training cum Technology Development Centers

(TTDCs) in the districts will build the technical and managerial capacities of the

poor for undertaking self-employment activities.

Wage employment programs

While Employment Assurance Scheme is providing direct wage employment to

the rural poor during the lean season, programs such as watershed development,

Joint Forest Management Program (JFM) have enhanced the wage employment

opportunities of the rural poor through out the year

The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana brings all the ongoing programmes

into a single integrated project with participation of the urban poor. It is

applicable to all urban towns (7 Municipal Corporations and 109 Municipalities in

the State) on a whole town basis. It has four components: Urban Self

Employment Programme, Urban Wage Employment Programme, Urban Training

Programme, Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas. It is

implemented through community-based organisations in a three-tier system

consisting of Neighbourhood Groups, Neighbourhood Committees and Community

Development Societies. Over 41 thousand Neighborhood groups, 4415

Neighbourhood Committees and 143 Community Development Societies have

been facilitated to come into being and have taken up works.

Mission based approach to employment generation

The Government of AP have established Employment Generation Mission to

coordinate activities of all the concerned departments in employment generation

and manpower planning. The Mission will prepare a time bound action plan for

implementation. The Government will act as facilitator and would identify and

prioritise key sectors with employment potential and ensure successful

implementation.

Natural Resource Management

Sustained improvement in the quality of life, especially for the rural poor,

depends on efficient management and renewal of natural resources. Watershed

programs can be successful in harmonizing the use of water, soil, forest and

pasture resources, particularly in the rain-fed areas of the state to raise

agricultural productivity. Consequently, they offer a sustainable opportunity to

increase growth and reduce poverty. 5472 watersheds covering an area of 27.6

lakh hectares with an investment of Rs.580 crores using participatory approaches

have been taken up. Over two lakh hectares of wastelands are being treated

under the Integrated Wastelands Development Programme.

Forest protection and management have been taken up through the Joint Forest

Management. Over 13.5 lakh people including 6 lakh women in Vana

Samrakshana Samities manage 16.32 lakh hectares of degraded forests in the

State.

Irrigation water management has been entrusted to statutorily constituted

10,400 Water Users Associations to ensure efficient and equitable management of

this high cost and scarce resource.

Empowerment of poor women

Self Help Groups of Women (thrift groups) programme has mobilized and

organized 48 lakh poor women in the rural areas into 3.7 lakh groups. These

women groups have built up a corpus fund of Rs 750 crores consisting of their

savings, borrowings from banks and DWCRA revolving fund from government.

The empowerment process has enabled the members of DWCRA and thrift groups

in addressing poverty in all it’s dimensions. DWCRA movement has contributed to

the augmentation of incomes, improvement of nutrition, better child care of the

poor women and enhanced the status of women in rural households. A similar

programme for the urban areas has now been started under the name of

Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas (DWCUA). 5523 DWCUA

groups have been formed and developed in urban areas.

The Girl Child Protection Scheme endows around Rs 5000 on eligible new born girl

child for pursuing education till the age of 20 along with a lumpsum amount of

Rs.20,000 for self employment. The budget provides Rs 25 crores for the scheme,

which will cover 50 thousand girl children born during the year. Since its inception

in 1996-97 nearly 2.5 lakh girl children have been covered in this scheme.

Janmabhoomi campaign

Janmabhoomi campaign has given an opportunity to the poor to articulate their

concerns and demand their rights and entitlements. The campaign has provided

forum for identification of beneficiaries for many anti-poverty program, rendering

the process more transparent. It has enhanced the accountability of the

government functionaries and local bodies to the people in general and the poor

in particular.

State Government’s Strategy for poverty eradication

The poverty eradication strategy proposed herein is designed to operationalise

Vision 2020 goals in this respect. The Government of AP is committed to

eradicate poverty in all it’s dimensions among all sections of the people through

promoting growth, especially of such sectors, which will expand opportunities for

the poor and build their human capital to enable them to participate effectively in

the growth process. The government will follow empowerment approach to

poverty reduction by facilitating the process of social mobilization. Strengthening

the abilities of the poor to fight poverty and expanding their asset base will

underpin the strategy for poverty eradication.

Elements of the strategy for poverty eradication

Poverty is multi-dimensional. The Government will adopt a multifold strategy to

eradicate poverty. The following are the key elements of the strategy. These

elements of the strategy are interlinked, and build on each other.

1. Pursuit of rapid economic growth,

2. Promotion of human development

3. Enhancing social capital of the poor by fostering organizations of the poor

and their capacity building

4. Promotion of sustainable livelihoods of the poor

5. Focus on backward mandals and the poorest of the poor

6. Re-designing the administrative delivery machinery

1. Pursuit of rapid economic growth

1.1 Economic growth

Past experience shows that poverty cannot be treated by itself. For instance a

great effort at poverty reduction could be nullified through inflation caused by

poor management of the monetary system and fiscal deficits. In general poverty

reduction can be sustained only through economic growth. Experience in many

countries of the world shows that a high rate of economic growth is the engine of

poverty reduction. Economic growth enhances opportunities for employment and

higher incomes.

1.2 Pro-poor growth

The Government is convinced that economic growth though essential for poverty

reduction is not enough. The government’s approach to growth is based on the

premise that more equal societies are more efficient transformers of growth into

fast poverty reduction. Growth must be pro-poor, expanding the opportunities

and life choices of poor people. Hence the government is committed to raise the

rate of reduction of poverty through growth by choosing patterns of growth that

are pro-poor and employment intensive by focusing on rural growth, by

integrating with emerging technological developments.

1.3 Rural growth

It has been the experience that rural growth reduces poverty faster in both rural

and urban areas. This is because rural growth not only enhances supplies of raw

material but also widely augments purchasing power, which supports urban

manufacture and employment. Rural prosperity increases demand for

construction materials, cycles and mopeds, transistor radios and batteries, soaps

and cosmetics and processed foods like pasteurized milk and biscuits and a wide

variety of other goods and services. Hence, government will focus on employment

intensive sectors such as irrigation, agriculture and agro processing.

1.4 Irrigation

Irrigation raises agricultural output, and intensity of cropping thus raising demand

for labour and agricultural wages. Indian experience and experience in Andhra

Pradesh have shown that poverty is far less in irrigated areas than in areas

without irrigation. Government will therefore augment public investments in

irrigation, particularly in backward areas.

1.5 Agriculture

International experience shows that it is rural and agricultural growth that brings

sharp decline in poverty. Vision 2020 envisages that by 2020 Andhra Pradesh will

be a powerhouse of Indian agriculture by harnessing water resources, developing

agriculture in rainfed areas and reforming policy to stimulate growth. While the

vision 2020 document envisaged agriculture growing at 6% per annum, the trend

of rate of growth has been very modest over the past two decades.

Fostering conditions for agricultural growth in the rural areas has to be a central

pillar of the overall strategy for poverty reduction. Agro-processing enhances

value of agricultural products and increases employment and incomes in rural

areas apart from enhancing the quality of output for the consumers, rural or

urban. It enhances export opportunities and values for agricultural products and

enables access to the tremendous international market opportunities for our

agriculture. It promotes faster growth of employment outside agriculture on

which an unsustainable proportion of rural population is now dependent.

Government will promote these activities aggressively.

The prospects for poultry, fisheries, dairying and horticulture remain robust in

Andhra Pradesh. These sub-sectors are growing at about 4 to 6 times the growth

rates compared to growth registered in the food grain sector. With rising per

capita incomes in the country and increasing liberalization of world agrocommodities,

there is even greater scope for the development of these

components, which can help pull up the overall growth in agriculture, which would

have significant impact on the reduction of rural poverty.

1.6 Employment potential in service sector

The service sector in the state accounts for nearly 43% of GSDP and employs

20% of workforce. The service sector will need to expand at almost 16 times it’s

current size and grow at the rate of 12% a year. This sector is expected to be a

major generator of new jobs, especially in rural areas. In rural and semi rural

areas small-scale service segment is expected to provide significant employment

opportunities in higher value-added jobs. The growth of this sector will enable

occupational shift and productive employment of AP’s large number of agriculture

labour, women, youth and artisans. Hence the Government will focus on

developing services sector as a critical aspect of realizing its growth aspirations.

It is expected that about 40 lakhs jobs will be created in service sector by 2005.

This will be accomplished by skill development, provision of micro-credit and

conducive policy environment to boost the service sector.

Most poor women and youth will take advantage of SHG movement to set up

viable self-employment ventures, to earn additional income. Corporate private

sector will be involved for enhancing marketing opportunities through partnership

models, establishing marketing platforms, access to modern technologies and

tools, value addition to products, packaging, branding and increased marketing

opportunities.

1.7 Rural infrastructure

Infrastructure gaps are holding back investments and growth in both rural and

urban areas. Government will therefore increase its own and promote private

investments in infrastructure, especially in rural areas. Electrification of rural

habitations and enhancing the quality of power supplied (assurance of supply on

demand, voltage stability) will contribute substantially to the diversification of the

rural economy and enhancement of the quantity and variety of outputs. It leads

to growth of non-farm employment opportunities. It will change and enhance the

quality of rural life increasing access to education and health. Lack of transport

facilities limits marketability and augmentation of incomes and employment.

Rural connectivity will raise access to markets for rural products. All habitations

will be connected to the nearest market centers to enhance such opportunities for

rural output.

Since 1995-96, Rural infrastructure development fund (RIDF) of NABARD has

strengthened rural infrastructure at an estiamated cost of Rs 1961 crores in our

state.

1.8 Information technologies

The emerging Information Technology (IT) has tremendous potential to bring

about transformation in the rural and urban areas. IT has great potential for use

in raising literacy levels, improving the quality and reach of teaching for primary

and secondary schools, awareness building on hygiene, nutrition, reproductive

health and communicable and other diseases. The government would focus on

the interventions to enable the poor access tremendous employment

opportunities emerging in this sector.

1.9 Private capital investments

Private capital investments accelerate economic growth by mobilizing domestic

household and international savings and generating output, employment and

incomes. A predictable and stable environment of encouragement, expansion of

infrastructure and liberalised markets facilitate growth of private investments.

Government will use fiscal and other incentives to channel private capital into

pro-poor investments. There can be no greater attraction to profit driven private

capital than the gigantic market of the poor in the State.

2. Promotion of human development

2.1 Human development and growth

Rapid improvements in human capabilities and economic growth can be mutually

reinforcing, when a good share of resource generated by growth are channeled to

human development. When pattern of growth generates demand for increasing

skills, a virtuous spiral of growth and human development results in reduction of

poverty.

The first step in generating a growth spiral is the provision of basic minimum

services to all citizens, especially the poor, women and the weaker sections.

These basic minimum services have been identified as education, health, nutrition,

safe drinking water, sanitation, housing, and rural connectivity. These ensure

improvement in human development and access to markets, which are the

passport out of poverty into a comfortable and qualitative life. Empirical evidence

suggests that access to, and performance in, basic health and education have the

most dramatic effect on poor children’s chance to escape from poverty. It has

catalytic role for those who are most likely to be poor: women, weaker sections,

and people living in rural communities. Health and education can be expected to

lead to increased earning potential and improved labour mobility. The skills being

provided for the poor should be based on demand for them in the open market; a

match between skill supply and demand is of importance.

2.2 Education

In consonance with the goal and objectives envisaged in Vision 2020, its

commitment to the childs right to education, the Andhra Pradesh agenda for

education as articulated in the government’s strategy paper on education has the

following objectives and the pursuit of the same will have significant impact on

the poverty situation in the state.

• Andhra Pradesh will not be just a literate but a knowledge society capable

of meeting the challenges of 21st century and to provide avenues to every

person to realise his or her full potential through access to educational

opportunities regardless of the class or region to which he or she belongs.

• Government of Andhra Pradesh is committed to take decisive action on all

fronts – legislative, administrative and socio-economic – to put a complete

halt to the exploitative and shameful process of child labour within a

definite time frame of 5 years. Andhra Pradesh will be free from child

labour before 2005.

• The primary goal would be to improve overall literacy levels from the

current 54% of the population to over 95% by 2005. It will mean

achieving universalisation of enrolment, retention, adult education with a

special emphasis and focussed strategies to improve literacy and

achievement levels in the groups with traditionally low levels i.e., rural

women, minorities, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward classes,

child labour, girlchild particularly muslim girl child and the population of

identified backward areas.

• Andhra Pradesh will meet the challenges of the 21st century for providing

knowledge based and skilled manpower with reference to emerging areas

of manpower requirement by including IT Education in School curriculum

and reorienting the Secondary Education to also incorporate vocational

education.

• With a decentralised, simple, moral, accountable, responsive and

transparent (SMART) governance, Andhra Pradesh will move towards

participatory management by the parents and local communities as

partners in improving access, quality of education and overall

management of education.

2.3 Health

The government’s commitment to improve the quality of life of the poor is

reflected in the government’s strategy paper on health where it is stated that;

every person will have access to responsive basic health care and specialized

health care at affordable prices. Women will have safe and successful pregnancies.

Infant child mortality due to ailments like Accute Respiratory Infection (ARI) and

Diarrhea will be reduced drastically. Spread of AIDs will be contained.

Communicable diseases like Gastro Enteritis (GE), Malaria and TB will be

effectively prevented. Families will be small and better spaced. Life expectancy

will reach 68 for males and 70.6 for females.

3. Enhancing Social Capital of the Poor

3.1 Social mobilization of the poor

Social mobilization enables the poor to build their organizations (Self Help Groups)

at grassroots level, in which they participate fully and directly and take decisions

on all the issues concerning poverty. The government will foster mobilization and

organizations of the poor and empower them to address various issues

concerning poverty. The ongoing efforts in facilitating the formation and

development of the Self Help Groups of the poor, especially DWCRA groups in the

rural areas, DWCUA groups in the urban areas, mothers committees, school

education committees, watershed committees, vanasamrakshan samithies and

CMEY groups would be sustained. Through these Self Help Groups, the poor are

able to harness their potential, prioritise their needs, design and implement

developmental initiatives. The government would pursue policies to SHG

movement & their participation in the programmes critical to poverty eradication.

3.2 Organisation building

With the Self Help Groups as the building blocks, the community based

organsations(CBOs) of the poor are emerging at habitation, cluster and mandal

level. The government would encourage this process, so that the poor would be

able to articulate their demands effectively and manage the developmental

initiative professionally. The government would facilitate development of selfmanaged,

self-reliant and vibrant organizations of the poor, at village, mandal

and district level such as Mutually aided cooperatives societies (MACS) of women

being formed at mandal level in many districts.

3.3 Capacity building of the SHGs and their federations

Capacity building of the SHGs and their federations will be given adequate

attention. The government would develop state level, district and mandal level

training capabilities so that the capacity building of the members of the

organization is taken up depending on the need and the demand of the groups.

The government would put in position an effective mechanism to regularly

undertake the rating of the groups so that developmental inputs can be targeted

in a more transparent way. The organizations of the poor, being participatory

bodies will forge harmonious partnership with the representative bodies such as

Grampanchayats and Mandal parishads and Municipal bodies.

4. Promote sustainable livelihoods of the poor

The growth impulses in the economy should focus on generating sustainable

livelihood opportunities for the poor. This can come through natural resource

regeneration such as watershed and wasteland development. These protect the

poor communities from adverse climatic conditions such as droughts, erratic

distribution of rainfall and excess rainfall, enhance their opportunities for

employment and incomes.

An important concern in watershed development is the equitable distribution of

the benefits of land and water resources development and the consequent

biomass production. Public investment of a large magnitude is being made in both

private lands and in common public property. Therefore the right of each

individual in the village to an equitable share of the common lands, forest and

water resources of the village regardless of his individual private land holding

would be recognised and addressed through effective means.

The support for micro-watershed development will be routed through the SHGs of

the poor to ensure that the works taken up are demand driven and based on their

felt needs, thereby ensuring better targeting of the interventions in favour of the

poor.

Promotion of rapid rural growth in drought-prone and rain fed areas of the state

is another important means of enhancing the livelihood opportunities to the poor.

Towards this end government will promote horticulture, forestry and livestock in

these areas.

A 10-year (1998-2007) action plan aimed at treating 10 million hectares of

wastelands/degraded lands and degraded reserve forests using participatory

processes has been initiated in the state. So far about 3 million hectares is being

treated. The Government has recently embarked on a program A.P Rural

livelihoods project, in five districts (Anantapur, Kurnool, Mehbubnagar, Prakasam

and Nalgonds), with the financial support of Department for International

Development (DFID), Government of United Kingdom, at a cost of over Rs 307

crores. This program addresses the issue of sustainable rural livelihoods in a

framework of employment, and better conditions of living for the poor and

conservation of natural resources. It provides support for strengthening

participatory processes and providing sustained capacity building for the

community-based organizations involved in watershed management.

Andhra Pradesh has taken bold steps to demonstrate that a convergence of

conservation and development objectives can be achieved through Joint Forest

Management (JFM). Pursuing one of the most proactive JFM programs in India,

the State has committed to the user groups, 100% of usufruct forest produce

secured from the area entrusted to the JFM committees. Widespread

implementation of JFM is leading to an increased flow (both value and volume) of

forest products to communities and an increase in environmental benefits

resulting from improved forest condition (principally with respect to soil and water

regimes). Formation of JFM Committees in Andhra Pradesh has successfully

targeted remote and under-served communities, in particular tribal populations.

Government is committed to ensure the success and spread of this process.

5. Focus on the backward mandals and the poorest of the poor

The level of development is not even in different areas of the state and poverty

tends to be more intense in the less developed areas. Lack of basic minimum

services like education, health, drinking water, nutrition, and housing is primarily

responsible for backwardness of the areas. Backwardness is also caused due to

the lack of basic infrastructure such as roads, irrigation, and electricity. Lack of

adequate employment has also contributed to low income and poverty in the

backward areas. Therefore government will adopt a three-pronged strategy of

providing basic minimum services, improving infrastructure and creating

opportunities for sustainable employment. The focus will be on bringing the level

of development in the backward areas on par with the rest of the state during

next five years. The growth engines under vision 2020 will be chosen to maximize

the potential of each region. The Government will select a set of parameters for

ranking the mandals by their development through wide consultations and

identify backward mandals. There will be sharper focus for accelerated

development and poverty eradication in these mandals.

The Governement would also identify poorest of the poor families whose annual

income is less that Rs 6000 and ensure convergence of all anti-poverty programs

and area development programs so that these families can come out of poverty

and secure access to sustainable livelihoods in a time bound manner.

6. Redesigning the administrative delivery mechanism

All the departments of the government will be sensititve to the issues concerning

poverty and poverty eradication shall become the priority. The departments

would be reoriented to look at development as an opportunity to bring changes in

the lives of the poor. Each department would be mandated to articulate clearly as

how the departments programs address the poverty.

Transparency and accountability will become the hallmark of the government’s

interface with the people, especially the poor. The departments would revisit the

procedures, processes and guidelines and make necessary changes to give space

for participation of the poor through SHGs in designing, prioritizing, implementing

and monitoring their developmental programs.

Resource mobilization

The government have mobilized resources from World Bank to support rural

component of Velugu (APDPIP) which aims at poverty eradication in 6 backward

districts of AP at an outlay of Rs 600 crores. Another Poverty reduction Project to

cover about 500 backward mandals in the state at an outlay of Rs 2000 crores is

being appraised by the World Bank. Considering the inadequacies in the past

developmental strategies in reaching the poorest of the poor, these two projects

are mandated to focus on the poorest of the poor, who have been left out of

various development initiatives.

The urban component of ‘Velugu’, the AP Urban Services for the Poor programme

supported by DFID is under implementation in 32 Municipal towns, with an

estimated cost of Rs 745 crores. The project aims at improvement of municipal

management including support for municipal finances, improved environmental

services (drinking water, sanitation, etc) and enhancing community participation

in management of municipal development.

The Government would put in all the concerted efforts to assist 40 lakh poor

families in the state to come out of income poverty in next 5 years. These

families will also be assisted to secure minimum living standards during the same

period.

Poverty Eradication Mission

Government have constituted the Poverty Eradication Mission to advise it on the

policies and programmes to be taken to speedily achieve the Vision 2020 goals in

this respect, to promote convergence of all related activities, to identify and

recommend best practices from national and international experience and to

monitor the performance. The Mission will provide a platform for advocacy for the

cause of the poor.

The government is convinced that poverty is no longer inevitable. The state has

material and natural resources, the know-how and the determined people to

make a poverty-free state. It is with this conviction the government is

channelising all its resources to make Andhra Pradesh, a poverty-free state.

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