Role of governance in poverty alleviation

‘Poverty amidst plenty’ is the World's greatest challenge. Poverty is defined as the inability to meet basic needs as measured by income or consumption. Poverty and standard of living are closely linked with each other. Poverty may be visible as shown by several indicators, such as, lack of control over resources, lack of education and skills, lack of access to protected water and sanitation, poor health, malnutrition, bonded labour, violence and crimes. Good governance is the process of translating social demands in to strategic choices resulting in prudent policy formulation and meticulous implementation. As such there are four main pillars of good governance; transparency, accountability, participation and predictability. The meaningful existence and implementation of all these factors will promote ‘growth with distributive justice’ to alleviate poverty. The role of good governance to alleviate poverty is based on such parameters as projecting a developmental vision, demonstrating a commitment in action to realise the developmental vision and developing a capability to honour and fulfill the commitments. ‘Governance’ and ‘Poverty’ are two predominant terms that have come to the forefront of the developmental agenda in India. The objective of the present study is to find out the basic diagnosis of the poverty situation prevailing in India at all possible angles. The primary purpose of this objective study is to make a meaningful inventory of the anti-poverty policies that are being presently pursued by Government of India and draw the attention of the policy makers and planners to the strategies efforts that are needed to execute a comprehensive poverty alleviation strategy to ensure growth with distributive justice’.