75^th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

Second Committee 

Agenda Item 24

Eradication of Poverty and Other Development Issues

INDIA STATEMENT

By

First Secretary Mr. Siddharth Malik  

13 October, 2020

Mr. Chair,

India aligns itself with the statement delivered by the distinguished delegate of Guyana on behalf of the Group of 77. We thank the Secretary General for his reports under the agenda item 24. 

While the world had witnessed significant gains in eradication of poverty in the last decade, the catastrophic COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to reverse the gains made and around 70 million people will be pushed into poverty in 2020 alone. Designing effective strategies to eradicate poverty will continue to remain a persistent challenge for humanity in this Decade of Action. 

There are significant differences in the scale of absolute poverty that exists in societies across the world. Poverty manifests itself in diminished opportunities for livelihood, quality education, and access to resources, social and gender discrimination and vulnerability to extreme climate events. In an inter-connected world, the consequences of poverty are no longer limited to only some parts of the world but have much wider impact through civil unrest, armed conflicts, and large scale movements of people. 

Mr. Chair,

We need to double our efforts as we have a challenging task at hand in the United Nations’ Third Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.  The COVID-19 crisis provides us with an opportunity to renew our focus to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions.  

There is an urgent need to take targeted policy interventions to empower the marginalised and vulnerable sections of society, to improve their access to education, nutrition, housing, healthcare, social protection, basic services, employment, and facilitating financial inclusion can go a long a way in lifting people out of poverty. 

Mr. Chair,

In India we are implementing a comprehensive development strategy to eradicate poverty through accelerated economic growth and broader social safety nets. We have lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016.

We have launched a wide range of programs for promoting gainful employment and have improved accessibility to basic services, such as health, nutrition, drinking water and sanitation, education, skills, infrastructure and utilities. India’s rural population is protected against unemployment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act which provides a legal guarantee of 100 days of wage employment per household in a year. 54% beneficiaries of this scheme have been women. 

We have effectively deployed the tools of modern technology to empower the poor through financial inclusion by linking “people’s bank accounts, universal identification number (India’s Unique identity programme, Aadhar) and the cellular telephone services”. Through the targeted financial inclusion program over 200 million Indian women have been brought into the mainstream financial system, accelerating their economic empowerment through new avenues of credit, insurance, and Direct Benefit Transfers while improving transparency and reducing corruption. 

Ayushman Bharat, a cashless and paperless, universal health coverage scheme scheme is targeted at 500 million people and provides a coverage of US$ 7,000 per family every year. More than 10 million people have availed medical treatment under the scheme since its launch in 2018.  

We have announced several measures to assist the poor and the needy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Under PM’s Program for the Welfare of the Poor we have announced a package of US$ 24 billion; this includes transfer of US$ 4.2 billion in bank accounts of 200 million poor families. To ensure sufficient food is available for the poor and the needy during the COVID-19 pandemic, we have announced the world’s largest food security scheme, the PM’s Foodgrain Program for the Welfare of the Poor (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) which will provide free food grains to around 800 million people. 

Mr. Chair,

The international community needs to take multilateral action to address the global impact of COVID-19. India is one of the founding members of the   recently launched “Alliance of Poverty Eradication”, through this alliance we will expand our development partnerships in the spirit of South-South cooperation with fellow developing countries and assist them in their efforts towards poverty eradication and sustainable development.

Going forward, we believe that new knowledge and technological advancements will transform the conventional structures of skills and employment. There is a need to redesign education and skill sets to ensure that future labour force have the capability and requisite opportunities to engage in gainful employment. There is also a need to invest and enhance quality and accessibility of health care and sanitation for the economically weaker sections and people in vulnerable situations to tackle challenges such as that of COVID-19. 

Mr. Chair,

Our underlying development strategy will remain focused on raising incomes, improving living standards and enhancing the ease of living of all communities, while leaving no one behind in order to eradicate poverty which is the overarching goal of the 2030 Agenda. I would like to end by saying that we follow the path shown to us by Mahatma Gandhi to eradicate poverty that is Sarvodaya through Antyodaya, which implies that development for all can only be achieved if the poorest and weakest section of society is uplifted. 

I thank you.