Abstract:
India accounts for an overwhelming number of the poor in the world. The causes of poverty have been traced to lack of adequate employment opportunities and limited access for markets for the poor. With expansion of the economy, poverty in India has declined from 54.9% in 1973-74 to 27.5%in 2004-2005.But the absolute number of the poor continues to remain high. The formulation and implementation of the various poverty alleviation and employment opportunities like Self?Help Group and national Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) constitute a significant step to poverty alleviation by providing an institutional framework for guaranteeing supplementary livelihood opportunity to the rural household. During the post independence period, the incidence of rural poverty has increased to 221 millions in 2004-05. The rapid growth of rural population and agriculture laborers, failure of land reforms, rural indebtedness, low wage rate, instable agriculture income and output, inflation and adverse effects of new agriculture strategies are the main causes for rural poverty which requires the attention of the government in this directions. It has been observed that more than seventy percent of the people live in rural areas and majority are living below poverty line and especially women are the main component. And poverty has taken the shape of 'feminization of poverty' in the country. The planning commission has focused on women empowerment issues in the Ninth and Tenth plans to wage a direct war against poverty. The government has introduced 'Self -Help Group as an innovative and dynamic anti poverty programme.
