Resource information
The report analyzes poverty incidence in
India and in particular, in Uttar Pradesh (UP), and defines
its poverty levels, trends, and vulnerability. While UP once
appeared positioned to be the pace-setter for India's
economic, and social development in light of its rich
potential in human, and natural resources, economic growth
faltered in the 1990s. UP fell behind India's better
performing states, and, despite a recent acceleration in
growth suggesting the state's performance has been
arrested, problems still remain. The report documents
poverty along a number of dimensions, i.e., material and
human deprivation, where poverty, if measured in terms of
material deprivation, is high, and progress at reducing it,
has been uneven over the past two decades. Statistics
regarding human deprivation, reveal averages, e.g., in
literacy well below the all-India average, likewise in
female literacy, while mortality rates indicate a much
higher ratio than in the country as a whole. Chapter 2
reviews the causes of poverty, stipulating poverty is caused
by a scarcity of private assets, where ineffective social
programs prevail. Governance, and the policy challenges are
examined in Chapter 3, addressing the need to transform
UP's public sector, through administrative and civil
services reforms to reduce fragmentation, with complementary
reforms at the sector levels to improve regulation. To
achieve economic growth, Chapter 4 provides recommendations
that include improvements in the investment climate,
accelerated growth in rural areas, and corrections in gender
bias, while Chapter 5 stresses on improving the quality, and
access to social services, and safety nets.
