Antyodaya
Topic: Schools of Economic Thought and Economic Laws · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Antyodaya means "rise of the last person". It is the principle that development should reach the poorest and most left-out person in society first. Deendayal Upadhyaya set it out in Integral Humanism (lectures of 1965). For policy, it works as a targeting principle: schemes should pick out the neediest and help them first, instead of spreading benefits thinly over everyone.
Example
The Antyodaya Anna Yojana (2000) gives the poorest households highly subsidised foodgrains. Other schemes built on the same idea are DAY-NRLM and Mission Antyodaya (2017). Antyodaya Diwas is observed on 25 September.
Don't confuse with
- Sarvodaya: Sarvodaya is Gandhi's ideal of the welfare of all, built on Ruskin's Unto This Last. Antyodaya, from Deendayal Upadhyaya, puts the last person first.