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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Not-so-poor families may not fall under food security law by Mahendra Kumar Singh

Anxious to ensure fiscal discipline and manage financial resources for its flagship programmes, UPA-2 is considering deletion of the Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries from the ambit of the proposed food security law.

It seems garnering money for UPA's pet promise of "food for all" is turning out to be a big headache as a note circulated for the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has argued in favour of mandating the states to stick to the BPL figures as estimated by the Planning Commission.

Interestingly, the Suresh Tendulkar Committee which was set up to come out with fresh data on poverty had calculated the BPL number to be about 38% of the population.

At the all-India level, the plan panel had calculated the BPL families to be around 36% in 1993-94, which it found had declined to 27.5% in 2004-05. The Commission's figure was contested by many state governments.

The EGoM note argued that the Centre should be responsible for determining the number of the poor and the methodology for their identification.

If the proposal gets the government's nod it will be mandatory under the law for states to adhere to poverty estimates of the Planning Commission.

In what is going to be a tough call for the ministerial panel considering the political sensitivity and financial stakes involved, the note has opposed making any commitment in the proposed food law for providing foodgrains to the APL families and refused to identify the APL families with the index of food insecurity.

"The exclusion of APL families from the food law is understood as the government is already struggling to deal with the swelling BPL numbers in the wake of the Tendulkar Committee report," said sources.

According to estimates, funding the "food for all" scheme would imply a cost of over Rs 45,000 crore under the current policies and figures. And if the Tendulkar Committee's 38% BPL figure is taken, the cost to the exchequer for running the scheme will be of the order of Rs 65,000 crore. If APL is also included under the food security law, the cost will around Rs 1,00,000 crore.

Orphans and street children are not expected to be covered under the food security law as the EGoM note has favoured that the issue of ensuring food for these groups could be covered by welfare institutions.

However, the EGoM note has favoured continuation of the existing status of the Antyodya Anna Yojana, in which 35 kg of rice or wheat is provided to the poorest among the poor at a rate of Rs 2 per kg.

It has been argued that along with the plan panel's estimate, the latest available census data could also be used to determine the actual BPL ceiling for each state and district.

The projected population figures of the Registrar General of India could be taken for the purpose of five-yearly review of the numerical ceiling.

"There is also the need for a uniform methodology for identification of poor under various government programmes,'' said sources.

The plan panel argues that state-wise there were large variations in the BPL figures and if the 2009 population estimates were accepted, then the total number of poor families would come down to 5.91 crore families.