Historical Aspect

• Broadly, the programmes and schemes initiated to eliminate poverty and remove social and economic disparities fall under two categories. These are: (a) self-employment programmes aimed at direct income generation and (b) wage employment programmes.
• Since the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85), the Government has been implementing these programmes. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) has been the major self-employment programme and it has been in operation in all the blocks of the country since 1980.
• The wage employment programme initially was National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) during the Sixth Plan period.
• In the Seventh Plan, another wage employment programme under the name Rural Labour Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) was introduced.
• Then in 1989, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) was launched by merging the National Rural Employment Programme and the Rural Labour Employment Guarantee Programme, and it became the main wage-employment programme. In addition, several programmes to help the poor were also in operation until March, 1999. These programmes are: Million Wells Scheme (MWS), Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS), Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Training of Rural Youth for Self- Employment (TRYSEM), Supply of Improved Toolkits to Rural Artisans (SITRA). 
• From 1st April, 1999, IRDP and allied programmes, alongwith Million Wells Scheme have been restructured into single self-employment programme called the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with the primary objectives of focussed approach to poverty alleviation.
• Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) has also been restructured as Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) with the primary objective of creation of demand driven community village infrastructure including durable assets at the village level
• Employment Assurance Scheme has also been restructured from 1999-2000 to make it the single wage employment programme. While the basic parameters have been retained, the scheme has become allocative scheme instead of demand driven scheme and a fixed annual outlay is to be provided to the states. The wage employment under the programme is given to Below Poverty Lines (BPL) families.
• From 1.12.1997, Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) is the main poverty alleviation programme in the urban areas. The SJSRY, which has subsumed all the earlier three urban poverty alleviation programmes, viz., Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY), Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP) and Prime Minister‘s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP), seeks to provide gainful employment to urban unemployed or underemployed poor through encouraging the setting up of self employment ventures or provision of wage employment.

Drought Prone Areas Program (DPAP), Desert Development Program (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Program (IWDP) are being implemented for the development of wastelands/degraded lands. DPAP was launched in 1973-74 to tackle the special problems faced by those areas constantly affected by drought conditions. DDP was launched in 1977-78 to mitigate the adverse effects of desertification. IWDP has been under implementation since 1989-90. These programs were implemented on a sectoral basis till 1994-95. Since April 1995, these programs are being implemented on watershed basis. The cost norms for all the three schemes have been revised to Rs. 6,000 per hectare. Under DPAP and DDP, the cost is shared between the Centre and the States in the ratio of 75:25.