We are a decade into the 21st century and we now live in a world full of wonders: marvels of technology, breakthroughs in medical science and an undeniably more comfortable standard of living compared to the previous centuries. While the occasional endemic (or even a pandemic) breakout of obscure diseases bares open the fragility of our existence, we have retreated into a cocoon of complacent living with political and financial turmoil dominating dinner table conversations. But, at this juncture an important question arises: Who is “We” in the statements above. To some of us the answer is obvious as the people we come in to contact with most often might share this utopian existence, erroneously considering it tantamount to a generalization of the entire country’s population. And that is the ugly truth of our existence.
World Bank estimates that 80% of India's population lives on less than $2 a day. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41% of India falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms ` 21.6 a day in urban areas and ` 14.3 in rural areas). According to the criterion used by the Planning Commission of India 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005. This is an alarming indication of the cost of India’s enviable growth and its absolutely unsustainable nature. To fulfil India’s dreams of becoming a global economic powerhouse, the need of the hour is an all-out war on poverty.
Know thy enemy - Sun Tzu, The Art of War
There is widespread consensus on the factors widening this gap between the have-nots and haves. World Bank’s Development Report (1990) hit the hammer on the nail with a succinct yet profound statement: ‘Countries that have been most successful in attacking poverty have encouraged a pattern of growth that makes efficient use of labour and have invested in the human capital of the poor’. While the former would bring a larger fraction of the population under the bracket of employment, the latter deals with the social evils that plague sustaining this effort in the long run by tackling issues like education, healthcare and other basic social services.
Well, if the factors have been identified as early as 1990, what prevents veritable action on scale that can usher in true ‘inclusive’ growth? A little investigation throws light on two common themes behind the impediments to achieving the aforementioned long term and short term goals: lack of information and knowledge. Every social /economic evil behind poverty (or more specifically lack of opportunities) takes roots in ignorance or lack of adequate skills and capabilities. And this leads to the next piece of the jigsaw: How do you put together an enormously scalable platform(s) that allows free flow of information and promotes development of human resources on which the next wave of growth opportunities can be ridden, with the keyword being ‘scalable’? Clearly, government policies based on traditional methods are meandering along at snail’s pace due to constraints on scale. So, what has been the missing ingredient in the efforts undertaken thus far? Have we found this magical potion and are we ready to really take on poverty?
The panacea to all these problems lies, ironically, in a field that has helped propel India into the big boys club of economic powerhouses – Technology. Technology brings to the table a host of unique attributes that can enable us to address the problem of scale in any endeavour to alleviate poverty. With the recent developments in both products (scalable applications like Video Conferencing, Mobile Technology etc.) and infrastructure (platforms like cloud, and connectivity etc.), Technology is poised to deliver long overdue social services economically and pervasively. To understand why, let’s delve deeper into the real issues behind poverty, problems with their alleviation and see how Technology could be our knight in shining armour.
Employment-a short term remedy
The most immediate relief from poverty is obviously through provision of meaningful employment. The great Indian growth story entails that there is unprecedented focus on infrastructure development. Ideally, that should translate into widespread creation of non-agrarian jobs. However, fundamental economics teaches us that for this demand-supply equilibrium to be reached information asymmetry must be overcome, in the absence of which demand remains unfulfilled with all the parties unsatisfied. It is exactly here that technology has an immense role to play leveraging the penetration of mobile phones in even the most remote parts of the country and using it as a medium for dissemination of employment related information. Babajobs.com is a perfect proof of concept of how technology has helped create a more efficient marketplace for exchange of services (blue-collar jobs).
Social Services – Long term measures
To affect long term sustainable results to reduce poverty, the very fabric of our society needs transformation. The success of our efforts will depend on our ability to address fundamental roadblocks like issues of identity, free and fair access to governmental measures, affordable healthcare and a right to rudimentary education and continued skill-development. Projects like UID are already highlighting the significant role technology is playing to tackle these issues. The education model adopted by Educomp and distance learning programs of well-known institutes can be reworked to provide a nation-wide platform to provide quality education and skill development courses leveraging the presence of institutions like ITIs and government schools.
The future of the war on poverty, and by extension the country’s growth, depends squarely on our ability to harness our core technological strengths to orchestrate tightly integrated platforms that will deliver essential services to help those living under the BPL. There must be participation from private players, government institutes and individuals to form an ecosystem that, with a little bit of skill and planning, may even turn out to be profitable for private players. That is the essence of technology: it has the potential to take us from having no solutions to providing a potentially profitable one.
~The above article,from an essay, by Sandip Devarkonda(PGDCM student, Batch of 2012, IIM Calcutta) won the first prize in Hysterisis 2011- the Essay Writing competition held by the Systems Consulting Club with the theme "Technology and Below Poverty Line"
