India needs multi-pronged approach to eradicate poverty: Report

Why we are still like this?: The child of a road-laying worker may be asking her sister while the younger is playing, unmindful of the future. A file photo: Mohammed Yousuf.

A multi-pronged approach with focus on >inclusive economic growth would help eradicate poverty, which is increasingly getting concentrated in a few geographical areas, says a research report.

The observations are part of the India Public Policy Report (IPPR) 2014 jointly published by O P Jindal Global University and Oxford University Press.

“Overcoming poverty requires a context specific multi-pronged strategy that includes: a basic needs approach, a human rights entitlement approach, a natural resource management approach and a focus on inclusive economic growth,” the report released this week said.

Poverty in India is getting increasingly concentrated in a few geographical areas, among specific social groups and is increasing in urban areas, it said.

It also noted that access to a diverse food basket alone may not help in effectively overcoming malnutrition.

The report’s Policy Effectiveness Index (PEI) showed that at all India level there is a gradual, but only a marginal, improvement in the policy effectiveness index over the three decades - period from 1981 to 2011.

The index is based on four factors - livelihood opportunity, social opportunity, rule of law and physical infrastructure development.