Title:	The State and Urban Poverty in India - The Case of SJSRY
Where & When:	Friday, January 30, 2004 341 Eggers 12:30:00 PM - 2:00:00 PM
Type of Activity:	Lecture
Summary:	Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) is a major urban poverty alleviation scheme in vogue in India. It marks a bold initiative towards democratic decentralization as it relies heavily on the community based organizations of urban poor women, instead of the traditional top down systems for extension of benefit programs for their well being. Responsiveness, transparency, accountability, participatory solutions and consensus decisions are some of the hallmarks of good governance, and are all generally found to favor democratic decentralization. However, the working of the SJSRY has revealed that there are still a number of reform issues which have to be addressed. Since the scheme is sponsored and largely financed by the central government, the centralization pulls are still strong. A right balance between the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the decision making need to be worked out. Another issue is putting the interface between the community based organization and municipal institutional structures envisaged under the 74th Constitutional Amendment on more formal footing. These and other related issues need wider deliberation. The presentation will discuss the Urbanization of poverty in India, the benefit program envisaged under SRSJY including its administrative and financing arrangements, and will assess the adequacy of the administrative arrangements through comparative analysis of the scheme’s performance in two states – Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.

Speaking:
K.S.R.N. Sarma
Visiting Faculty Member at the School of Planning and Architecture
New Delhi

Sponsor:
Development and Social Transformation Forum, Co-Sponsor
South Asia Center, Co-Sponsor