EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATIONSKILLS Education Policy Briefs
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08 Jun 2010
Brazil has the largest cash transfer scheme in the world and it has had a measure of success in fighting poverty. Its experience shows that cash transfers, when implemented properly, are at best a necessary condition for poverty alleviation. Supply side constraints have to be removed if the increased purchasing power is not to lead to unbridled inflation that will hurt the poor badly. While a case can be made for a cash transfer system in India, in the existing situation of an incomplete transition to a multi-level structure of government, with insufficient clarity on intergovernmental relations, and an overarching set of civil services fighting for turf at the union and state levels, it will be difficult for India to design suitable programmes.
In this article for the EPW, Vinod Vyasulu offers his thoughts and inputs on Brazil’s ‘Fome Zero’ scheme and what the application and ramifications of the same could potentially look like in India.
Vyasulu, V. (2010). Brazil’s “fome zero” strategy: Can India implement cash transfers?. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(26/27), 89–95. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40736696