While there is evidence of some positive change as a result of economic development and some of the anti-poverty strategies implemented in India, the overall effect is fairly limited, especially among the poor. Some of the less favoured rural areas have faced deterioration due to a shrinking land base and restricted access to forest resources. The slow pace of economic growth only partly explains the exclusion of certain categories of households, indicating that parts of the rural community, particularly the landless and the small-marginal farmers, remain unaffected by even a moderately faster growth rate. This paper examines changes in poverty and related poverty factors in South West Madhya Pradesh, and it aims to further an understanding of poverty typology and poverty dynamics by focusing on a micro setting. Findings indicate that there is a need for establishing basic infrastructures, especially for health and education, and that crop- productivity and market support do not develop at a sufficient rate to impact on the reduction of chronic poverty.Chronic poverty, Anti-poverty programmes, Incidence of poverty, Poverty dynamics, Policy implications,
Marginalisation of Tribals of Southwestern Madhya Pradesh dates back to the British rule. After independence, the new pattern of development fundamentally altered three crucial bases of production: water, land and forest. In remote tribal areas, market and state failure have invited intense community participation in informal institutions, that govern land-man relations, law and dispute resolution. This has helped in perpetuating trust and solidarity within the community. The civil society institutions like Adiwasi Mukti Sangathan and the Narmada Bachao Andolan have played a significant role in making the dormant social capital available for wider use. But the complexities of economic stratification and inefficiency of decentralised governance are contextual for social capital to manifest. Despite the fact that the social capital has positively influenced non-social events since early 1990s, its manifestations in natural resource management have been marginal. Analysis reveals that : a) the process of centralisation at the Panchayat level is too overpowering for the community to exert pressures for a participatory process to begin; b) the quantum of financial allocation is too thin to meet the demands of the community; c) the desire of the bureaucracy and elected representatives, at higher echelons, to control the activities and finance of the Gram Panchayat, does not allow the Panchayat to function independently; and d), existing laws that govern natural resour•ces obstruct the process of giving up their control to the community.
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