Effect of Structural and Conditional Rigidities on Moving a Beneficiary from Passive to Active State: An Empirical Investigation in a Poverty Reduction Programme in Rural India

Most studies on poverty alleviation and reduction programmes emphasize structural bottlenecks, asymmetric information, and rent seeking behaviour. This paper provides an analytical characterization of the beneficiaries in a situation of much structural and conditional rigidity, where all beneficiaries do not move from a passive state to an active state and take advantage of the government intervention despite their having access to the benefit. From an ordered logistic analysis of primary data collected from the Supply of Improved Tool Kits to Rural Artisans (SITRA programme) in 2001-02, the study reveals that factors such as demographic characteristics, incomes from other sources, gender, and the quality of the tool kits are important variables affecting their economic behaviour. It argues that skill-biased technical change in this situation may have serious short comings.