This soon to be published book is about the state of perennial poverty prevailing in the rural areas of India. Even after 60 years of independence, approx one-fifth of the population is estimated to still live below the poverty line in 2007, here poverty line is itself defined as where a person is able only to feed himself without taking into consideration the provisions for shelter, clothing, basic health care and primary education. If these essentials of life are added in the existing definition of poverty, perhaps more than half of India's population will fall below the poverty line. This massive poverty is prevailing despite there have been wide varieties of programmes for rural development where enormous sums are being spent right from the first five year plan, with Rs. 31,444 crores allocated by the Government of India alone in the year 2006–07.
Accordingly, the book has these issues: (i) pro-poor growth for tackling the roots of poverty, inequality and unemployment, (ii) the role of primary education, literacy and vocational training in industrial and agricultural production, (iii) enhancement of self-governance, i.e. panchayti raj institutions for implementing the programmes of rural development, (iv) cottage and agro-industries as a fusion for industrialization for providing employment in rural areas, and (v) the impact of the existing programmes of rural development on poverty alleviation. For evolving a bottom-up planning process for rural development, it is concluded that for grass-roots level socio-economic upliftment in rural areas, what is required is a five-year plan focusing exclusively on vulnerable, underprivileged and downtrodden sections of the society.
To find ways and means to alleviate poverty from rural areas, the research for this book was carried out through a survey as to what the people themselves think where we have gone wrong and what should be done in the future to alleviate poverty. The methodology adopted in this book is based on stratified purposive sample and structured questionnaires, where personal interviews were conducted with the cross-section of the respondents in the district of Varanasi. The views of the respondents are reproduced 'as it is' in the book, and analyzed using frequency and content analyses.
