Caste proponents say the census must include questions on caste to establish true caste ratios. Opponents say questions on caste are socially divisive. They also raise a behavioural objection: the very announcement of a caste census could encourage people to claim, fraudulently, that they belong to a caste entitled to reservations. This behavioural objection applies as forcefully to surveys for determining poverty. The National Sample Survey Organization conducts periodic surveys on...
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How to be an ‘eligible suicide' by P Sainath
Why do governments ignore the farm suicide numbers of the National Crime Records Bureau, when it is the only authentic source on the subject? Kafka might have envied the script. In Delhi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Rajya Sabha on May 7 that there had been just six farmers' suicides in Vidarbha since January. The same day, same time in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that figure...
More »People need to chew more than govt can bite off by Priyadarshi Siddhanta
The empowered Group of Ministers on food security, scheduled to meet tomorrow, will have to walk a tightrope in trying to fulfill the ‘food for all’ promise made by the Congress party in its election manifesto. Not only is the government hamstrung by its inability to sustain procurement levels of of 50 million tonnes of foodgrains every year required to feed all poor — below poverty line (BPL) and above...
More »Bitter truth: Sugar goes missing from PDS shops by Santosh K Kiro
At Rs 34 a kg, sugar is bitter for some 29 lakh BPL families who haven’t received a grain of the sweetener at subsidised rate for over seven months now. Every bpl card-holder is entitled to a monthly quota of 1.12 kg sugar from PDS shops at Rs 13.50 a kg while the price in the open market is Rs 34 a kg. Streamlining the public distribution system (PDS) during his tenure,...
More »EGoM on food security Bill to meet on May 4, decide on poverty estimates by Saubhadro Chatterji & Devika Banerji
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the Food Security Bill has decided to meet once again before releasing the much-awaited bill for public feedback. According to a highly placed official in the food ministry, the EGoM is yet to synchronise issues like the poverty estimate with the states, apart from taking a final call on the inclusion of the Above Poverty Line (APL) population in the proposed legislation. The meeting...
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