Poor communities and the reforms process: partners not victims

Most multilateral and bilateral development organizations have recently shifted their focus to alleviation of poverty. Yet this remains an area in which several misconceptions persist. The removal of poverty is a complex challenge, which cannot be met only by directing large sums of money through government channels for standard poverty removal programmes. In its widest sense, the removal of poverty goes beyond meeting basic minimum needs to the provision of opportunities that every citizen in a society is enabled to pursue on par with those who are born to situations of privilege. Education, health care, sanitation, and provision of safe drinking water are clearly important inputs for creating a large span of opportunities such that the poor have an equal right to these similar to those in richer sections of society. TERI, in association with the World Bank Institute organized a three-day programme on Power Sector Reform and Privatization from 15?17 May 2000 in Bangalore. One major issue that was discussed in the programme, given its specific South Asian focus, was the provision of electricity for the poor in a period of wide-ranging economic reforms. Several countries outside Asia have tackled this problem with a great degree of success, and even in this region, Bangladesh for instance, is implementing some very interesting programmes that not only ensure supply of electricity to poor communities but also enable them to manage these programmes on their own. Considerable ingenuity and the generation of knowledge need to be generated on possible schemes by which the benefits of electricity reach the poor in a viable and sustainable manner. While governments and utilities are pursuing the process of reforms it is important to focus on the condition of the poor, so that they become partners in change and do not become the victims of a process that has the danger of helping only certain sections of society. Reforms are urgent and important for the well-being of the electricity supply industry and the welfare of consumers, but growth in consumption should take place on a secular basis without omitting the most vulnerable sections of the society.