Study of Families and Poverty

Study of the Families Below Poverty Line in Maharashtra

At the time of the study, 1983-1984, the families below poverty lines, gained less than 3500 rupies per year, in 1998 the families included in this category gain less than 11.500 Rs( about $250US). Unemployment, mass poverty, illiteracy and unhygienic living conditions characterizes the family under the poverty line. Since 1979 the government of India established the Integreted Rural Development Programme (I.R.D.P.) aiming at establishing a strategy of integrated development of natural resources in such a way that every person will engage himself in a productive and socially useful occupation. As poverty and unemployment are the principal characteristics of tribal areas, the main objectives of the I.R.D.P. are to provide aimful employment for agricultural activities, by creating adequate infrastructures and by supplying credit at low or free interest. To evaluate the impact of the I.R.D.P., 100 families from each of the 3 blocks selected were considered; the 100 families were considered from 10 villages. The study concluded that:

The identification of beneficiaries was not carried out as for guidelines; the beneficiaries had no idea about the schemes which they could take up for their upliftment;
The majority of beneficiaries were unaware of the number of installments, amount of loan, rate of interest or subsidy released;
The program was implemented as an extension of the old programme;
The majority of beneficiaries accepted the loan simple because it was being given
A few understood the purpose of its implementation;
The credit institutions did not succeeded to motivate the target group through credit courses for supervision and monitoring of the loans.