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Ultra-Poor

Project Concern International (PCI) India in collaboration with a thematic and technical partner is providing technical assistance to the office of Agriculture Production Commissioner (APC) cum Infrastructure and Industrial Development Commissioner (IIDC), Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) towards poverty alleviation of 5 lakh ultra-poor families with an even spread of 10 to 25 families from each of the ~ 57,000 Gram Panchayats in Uttar Pradesh (UP).

It is a digital initiative for facilitating Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) entitlements exclusively on the accounts of women beneficiaries. This women-led poverty alleviation initiative is an affirmative intent of Hon’ble Chief Minister of UP. It is a multi-department convergence initiative to address poverty and is backed by a comprehensive Government Order to onboard 14 departments ~ 46 DBT Schemes to be supported by executive orders from the concerned welfare departments.

A decentralized approach has been followed to enumerate & verify the ultra-poor households by Gram Panchayat (GP) functionaries based on 10 listed vulnerabilities like: single poor women widow abandoned destitute, poor landless family, old age (above 65 years) and sole earning member, head of the family is differently abled and sole earning member, Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, poor families living in disaster affected areas etc. Weights would be assigned to these vulnerabilities and will lead to an automated computing of Composite Poverty Index (CPI) and robust poverty profile.

An active remote DBT assistance center is setup to proactively follow up on realization of entitlements from the beneficiaries. DBT entitlements would be facilitated by Banking Correspondent (BC) Sakhi’s women Self Help Group (SHG) from Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihoods Mission (UPSRLM).

This is a strategic convergence initiative instrumentalized through a policy focused on poor, vulnerable and marginal groups who have been disproportionately excluded and affected over the years. It is a technology centric initiative to walk the extra mile and create a more enabling and equitable ecosystem for ultra-poor in the state.