Garibi Hatao Desh Bachao ("Remove poverty, save the country") was the theme and slogan of Indira Gandhi's 1971 election campaign. The slogan and the proposed anti-poverty programs that came with it were designed to give Gandhi an independent national support, based on rural and urban poor, which would allow her to by-pass the dominant rural castes both in and out of state and local government; likewise the urban commercial class. And, for their part, the previously voiceless poor particularly Dalits and Adivasis would at last gain both political worth and political weight.^[1]

The programs created through garibi hatao, though carried out locally, were funded, developed, supervised, and staffed by Government officials in New Delhi and Congress Party officials.^{[citation needed]} It was part of the 5th Five-Year Plan.