Making and Unmaking Poverty: Social Science, Social Programmes, and Poverty Reduction in India and Elsewhere

How does growth actually trickle down to remove an individual’s poverty? Is it through increases in employment? What other avenues did the benefits of growth travel through before reaching and helping poor people in this country? How do people become poor in the first place? What pathways lead people downward into poverty? The results of some recent research show that health is, indeed, closely related to the accretion and persistence of poverty. Those who fall into poverty and those who remain poor (despite their best efforts) are most often beset by illnesses and unbearably high medical expenses. This link between health and poverty – namely, that health is the most important reason why poverty remains large – is the first conceptual and policy connection that is being made in this lecture. Second, the author explores what needs to be done for accelerating escapes out of poverty. A particular emphasis here is the need for public debate on institutional change. What kinds of institutions will help in different contexts to achieve the objectives outlined? It is not simply a matter of government versus NGO – such dichotomies quickly degenerate into turf warfare of an unhelpful kind. What will underwrite effectiveness and ensure responsiveness in healthcare, education and information provision?