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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Govt to make poverty line more realistic

Govt to make poverty line more realistic

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published Published on Sep 21, 2011   modified Modified on Sep 21, 2011

-The Times of India

 

Facing a political storm over its poverty line prescription, the government decided to revise the Rs 32 a day expenditure criteria for urban population (Rs 26 for rural) by factoring in the 2009-10 National Sample Survey Organization report on household spend.

The pittance outlined in the Planning Commission affidavit before the Supreme Court left the government squirming as the BJP and Left attacked it for framing poverty guidelines that "insult the poor".

Acknowledging lack of "political input", official sources said the affidavit reflected a "technocractic" mindset that created the impression that the government wants to artificially restrict the number of poor while it had agreed to redraw eligibility norms.

"It will be recast in a realistic manner that takes into account actual expenditure incurred," said a senior minister.

The affidavit uses consumer price index for industrial workers and agricultural labour to state that at June 2011 prices, the poverty line can be "provisionally" placed at Rs 965 per person per month in urban areas and Rs 781 per person per month in rural areas.

The Planning Commission's approach to a sensitive subject left senior officials aghast as they pointed to UPA 2's commitment to social entitlements. The Tendulkar Committee - whose poverty criteria have been accepted by the government - pegs BPL population at 37% while the draft food security bill proposes covering 67% of the population.

The affidavit states that the total BPL population using PDS works out to 35.89 crore and argues that if the poverty ratio for 2004-05 is applied to projected population, it would be 40.74 crore. Provisional estimates suggest that as per 2009-10 estimation, the BPL population would be lower than in the case where Tendulkar calculations are applied.

While enumerating the poor and defining beneficiaries for welfare schemes is hotly debated with activists unhappy with efforts to prune the proposed food security law's coverage, the government has been embarrassed by allegations that it wants to hide poverty.

In its affidavit, the Planning Commission has said that it is relying on consumption as the Tendulkar committee moved from calorie counts and there are no surveys on income conducted by the NSSO or any other official organization.

"The Planning Commission is in the process of estimating the revised poverty lines as per the Tendulkar methodology using 2009-10 data," the Plan panel has said.

The Times of India, 22 September, 2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Govt-to-make-poverty-line-more-realistic/articleshow/10073173.cms


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