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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | How poor is poor in India?

How poor is poor in India?

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published Published on May 30, 2011   modified Modified on May 30, 2011

-Catholic Online

 

Poverty guidelines for one of world's most populous nations draw criticism

The nation of India is second only to China in terms of population - and the vast majority of Indians live in unimaginable poverty. Starvation is a very real concern for India's many millions, and countless Indians have no place to lay their heads other than the ground every night. However - guidelines recently submitted by India's Planning Commission is drawing heavy criticism, painting an unrealistically optimistic view of that nation's poor.

For example, an average Indian family man can earn as little as 5,000 rupees, or $110 a month. A family of four is crammed into a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water. After buying just enough food to stave off starvation, there is nothing left for medicine, new clothes for his children or savings.

According to the India's Planning Commission, which helps sets economic policy, has told the Supreme Court that the poverty line for the nation's cities is 578 rupees or $12.75 per person a month - or 2,312 rupees  or $51.38 for a family of four. For rural India, it's even lower at about 450 rupees, or $9.93.

In a country with soaring economic growth that has brought Ferrari dealerships and Louis Vuitton stores to cater to the new urban rich, hundreds of millions of others struggle without access to adequate food and clean water.

The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India's urban level. Local activists say a better name for India's standard would be "the starvation line."

The Planning Commission said it has to set the poverty line - which determines who gets government assistance - to make the best use of limited funds.

Using the commission's poverty line, 37 percent of India's 1.2 billion people qualify as poor.

India currently spends 2 percent of its GDP, about 29 billion in social protection, and half of that goes to the Public Distribution System, which provides the poor with subsidized food. Even with the low poverty line, the system caters to over 440 million people, more than the entire population of the United States.

The Planning Commission's current approach implies that the coverage of social benefits will shrink if not disappear over time, said Jean Dreze, a development economist affiliated with the Delhi School of Economics.

"In a rapidly growing economy, one would like to see the opposite," he said.

Catholic Online, 29 May, 2011, http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=41600


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