E-Governance for Poverty Alleviation: Indian Cases and Prospects for Poverty Alleviation in Uttar Pradesh
This paper argues that initiatives in e-governance can accelerate economic development and increase empowerment of individual citizens. Initiatives in e-governance can do so by helping to bring about good governance. More inclusive governance stimulated by e-governance can help overcome massive global problems of poverty alleviation. The paper discusses the impact of specific initiatives in e-governance and how they might help address poverty alleviation in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) in India. Uttar Pradesh has approximately 8 percent of the world's poor population. Eighty percent of poor households in UP live in rural areas. The paper draws lessons from the customized usage of e-governance, in particular, e-choupals (in Hindi choupal means village square or rural meeting place). It argues that such initiatives can: a) Fill gaps in access to communications infrastructure; b) Enable poor people to help themselves; and c) Help re-motivate officials responsible for implementing measures to alleviate poverty. The paper presents a thematic sequence of steps and stages for incorporating e-governance as a mode of operation. The sequence is open to customization as and when required. Expected issues and constraints facing initiatives in e-governance are also outlined.