Human Rights Approach in Poverty Alleviation Programmes in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the extent of human rights approach in the implementation process of various Poverty Alleviation Programmes (PAPs) in Tamil Nadu. The study was carried out on a sample of900 beneficiaries of various PAPs selected from three different districts of Tamil Nadu. The adoption of human rights approach was measured based on a set of human rights indicators developed for each of the PAPs. The opinion of women beneficiaries on each of the indicators was placed on a three-point scale ranging from Oto 2. A score of 2 was given for the presence of an indicator mostly, 1 for sometimes and O for never. The results of the study indicate that the level of adoption of human rights approach was highest at 93 per cent in Public Distribution System (PDS) followed by Swarna Jayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) (66 per cent), Indira Awassa Yojana (IAY) (65 per cent) and Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) (31 per cent). The PDS has performed well with higher level of adoption of human rights approach whereas the SGSY and IAY have succeeded too considerable extent and SGRY has performed badly with the very low level of adoption of human rights approach. The findings strongly suggest the need for the adoption of human rights approach for the success of the anti-poverty programmes.