Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Poor Economics: Has India’s poverty really fallen? -Santosh Mehrotra & Jajati Parida

Poor Economics: Has India’s poverty really fallen? -Santosh Mehrotra & Jajati Parida

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Apr 30, 2022   modified Modified on May 1, 2022

-Financial Express

Dataset and methodological weaknesses cast doubt on recent poverty estimates that claim drastic reduction

Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani in a working paper (IMF), claimed India’s poverty, per a $1.9 per person per day poverty line (at PPP), was 0.9% of the population in 2020. Thanks to government transfer of free rations of 5 kg per person month, it fell to 0.8% (from 0.9% in 2019). Roy and de Velt, for the World Bank (WB), claim poverty fell from 22.5% to 10.2% between 2011 and 2019. Remarkably, both papers contradict the WB’s official publications, which state that, as a result of Covid, poverty will increase by 88-115 million in 2020, and the largest contributor to this would be India.

Naturally, the media in India has lapped up these conclusions, and purveyed them widely, to the delight of the government. Therefore, the papers deserve a thorough examination, both for their methodology and findings.

First, Bhalla et al use National Accounts Statistics (NAS) to estimate private final consumption expenditure, then used to estimate poverty. Practically no one in the world uses NAS estimates of consumption. It overestimates consumption. That has never prevented Bhalla from using it.

Second, they don’t use household surveys of consumption expenditure (CES), widely used for estimating poverty (including by the WB, relying upon Living Standard Measurement Surveys). Historically, in India, poverty estimation has used the CES. The last one, in 2017-18, followed demonetisation and a hurried GST, which adversely affected the unorganised sector that employs 85% of non-farm workers. That CES showed contraction of rural consumption by 8% and a mere 2% rise in urban, compared to 2011-12.

Third, they ignore data on inequality, rising unemployment, falling employment rates, falling wage rates and rising food inflation.

Please click here to read more. 
 


Financial Express, 30 April, 2022, https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/poor-economics-has-indias-poverty-really-fallen/2508324/lite/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close