Performance of Anti-Poverty Programmes in Indian States: Identifying the Achilles’ Heel Ravi S. Srivastava* Using a broad definition of poverty, this paper analyses the effectiveness of anti-poverty programmes in India across Indian states in the middle of the last decade (2004-2006). It focuses on the variations in the performance of these programmes across the poorer states of India. It shows that there is indeed some variation even among these states and that there is a small upturn in the performance of some of the states, such as Bihar, during the more recent period, which did not do well earlier. It further argues that though anti-poverty programmes in India have moved towards people-centred and decentralized approaches, the current performance is still related to state level governance and innovativeness. Keywords: India, Poverty reduction, Governance, Performance Poverty can be defined as economic poverty, measured in terms of the average per capita consumption, or as capability poverty, defined more in terms of outcomes (functionings and capabilities), and including other dimensions, other than economic poverty, particularly health and education status. 1 Poverty alleviation programmes constitute a class of programmes, implemented or supported by the Government, which are mainly directed at the poor and aim to reduce poverty per se or at least some of its adverse consequences. There is broad agreement among analysts that the incidence and depth of poverty in India have reduced during the last three decades or so. 2 However, there is a debate on the contributory factors underlying this decline, specifically on the role and significance of anti-poverty programmes. Further, the reduction in poverty has taken place at a varying pace in different regions. Overall, there is a greater concentration of poverty, irrespective of how it is defined, in certain parts of the country. 3 This could be due to the fact that poverty-reducing growth processes have been weaker in these regions. This proposition is generally borne out by several analyses of inter-regional growth patterns. These show a greater divergence between regions, particularly during the post-reform period. However, direct anti-poverty programmes should have the effect of moderating the unequalizing impact of growth processes. This is because anti-poverty programmes focus on poor regions as well as on poor people. Almost all programmes give greater weightage in resource allocation to the poorer states, both Indian Journal of Human Development, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2012 * Professor of Economics, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Email: ravisriv@gmail.com. This paper was first presented at an international conference on “Poverty Eradication in Bihar: Patterns, Dimensions and Eradication Strategies” organised by the Institute for Human Development in Patna during 18-20 April 2010. It was last revised in March 2011.