Most rural poor are typically either landless or small landholders with no irrigation facilities. Lack of access to productive resources together with structural marginalisation puts them into the poverty trap.
Here comes the role of social legislations to promote and protect the rights of people and upgrade their well-being and quality of life. India has landmark legislations, such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Right to Information Act (RTI), Right to Education Act (RTE), Recognition of Forests Rights Act (FRA), and the National Food Security Act (NFSA). All these social legislations have the potential to combat rural poverty, provided we reach out to all marginalized people using public programmes, public institutions, Government legislations and Government funds. With this perspective and approach Civil Society Organisations can help reduce poverty.
Pragati Abhiyan works towards developing solutions that create an enabling environment for the poor to break out of the poverty trap. These solutions are in the form of ensuring effective delivery of existing government programs as well as devising new programs to address communities needs, and build evidence through research articulating specific changes in policies. Underlying our work is the strong belief that it is ultimately the mandate of the Government to support the poor in their efforts to move out of poverty.
