The Economic Divide

Poverty is both a cause and effect.
In a democracy, illiteracy would be the sole cause for poverty. Since it would be expected of a govt to offer schemes to reduce poverty, and advertise these schemes all over the countryside, only those who are unable to exploit these schemes would miss the bus. Communication and transportation channels could reduce the penetration of the message, but even if the message is received for people to recognise the opportunity and expliot it they need to be literate.

It seems to be that one strong influence to reaching out is the location of the govt. machinery. The proximity of govt. offices to areas where poverty thrives is inversely proportional to the chances of reduction of poverty. While splitting up states, and adding more districts would create more govt. centers it would only add more areas of ambiguous govt expenditure since greasing the govt machinery would consume resources which could rather be spent on poverty alleviation.

A more simpler and more powerful approach involves having a floating office. Rather than spend bulk of the time rooted in Delhi, the PM should spend time roaming the countryside. As a PM it is far easier to create media frenzy in areas where ignorance and poverty exist by merely visiting them. And a single visit is more than enough, since the final effort has to come from the populace who would like to gain freedom from poverty. 

A spoonfed population is not a healthy one. And even poverty alleviation schemes should achieve more than offering the poor alms at their doorsteps.

A rough plan of action would be :
1. Floating PMO finalised. There would be many issues that need to be sorted out before a PMO can be "floated" - communication and security being foremost.
2. PMO's visit preceded by creation of infrastructure. It is a norm, that if a PM wishes to visit a location, the roads get redone overnight. So just creating a schedule of visits will lead to increased spending on road infrastructure to centers of poverty.
3. PMO's visit to center of poverty, well media documented. Trust the media to dig up stories that the local govt would prefer to leave in the dark.

Blogged with Flock