Politics of poverty: a study of bounded labour

In the thirty years since India attained independence, many steps of far reaching importance have been proposed to lift the mass of dispossessed humanity out of its traditional ruts of degradation. The government, wedded to the goal of rapid economic development through democratic means, has been adopting a series of measures to eliminate poverty, especially in rural areas.
For the sake of convenience, the policies aimed at ameliorating the condition of the poor may be put under two broad categories. In the first place it was assumed that with an all round increase in the production of the country, alongwith the rich, the poorer and weaker section would also move up as the beneficiaries of the 'trickling-down effect'. The second category of policies comprise those steps which have the exclusive intent of helping the poor, at times even at the cost of the rich. All the various measures of 'reverse discrimination' or protective discrimination as well as the legislative enactments and fiscal measures were intended to help the poor and the destitute.