The 12th Plan Approach Paper looks upon land more as raw material for mining and industrialisation than as a source of livelihood for the poor. DESPITE a fast economic growth, more than 60 per cent of the population of India is still dependent on land. The 12th Plan Approach Paper, however, looks upon land not as a source of livelihood for the poor but as raw material for mining and industrialisation....
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Tendulkar's poverty line not meant to be an acceptable level of living for aam aadmi: Montek Singh Ahluwalia
-The Economic Times Pressure from within and outside the government has forced Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to clarify that the Tendulkar Commission's poverty line was, "not meant to be an acceptable level of living for the aam aadmi." Ahluwalia said a new methodology will be worked out to determine entitlements of beneficiaries under various schemes for poor. A Socio-Economic and Caste-Economic census was also underway to survey all rural...
More »Chhattisgarh police search human rights activist's residence in Jaipur by Sunny Sebastian
Chhattisgarh police raided the residence of Jaipur-based human rights activist Kavita Srivastava early on Monday morning in search of a fugitive woman Maoist from that State. Ms. Srivastava, general secretary of PUCL Rajasthan, was not present at the house on Kisan Marg in Shanti Niketan Colony when men in uniform and plainclothes came looking for one Sumit Sodi. The police team, comprising commandos from Chhattisgarh and personnel of Special Task Force of...
More »Reading between the Rs32 poverty line
-The Hindustan Times Do these people look well-off to you? The planning commission puts them above poverty line. Basant Kumar, 51 Shopkeeper Kusumpur Pahari slum, Vasant Vihar, Delhi Daily expense: Rs 53 Basant Kumar runs a little shop in a slum in Vasant Vihar, home to over two lakh migrant families. He feeds and clothes his wife and three children on his meagre earnings of Rs5,000 a month. He also works odd-jobs, in construction or with...
More »Struggling to enter the BPL club by Jean Drèze
The Planning Commission's poverty straightjacket is but one of a series of obstacles faced by “aspirants” to the BPL status. Nothing illustrates the absurdity of current food policies more poignantly than the plight of Dablu Singh's family in Latehar district, Jharkhand. About two years ago Dablu, a young Adivasi who survived mainly from casual labour, fell from a roof at work and broke his back. He is paralysed for life and...
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