Is India Becoming Poorer; Is It A Travesty?

Does India get poorer? The figure released by S.D.Tendulkar suggests that India is getting poorer instead of becoming richer, a proposition which may be contrary to popular perception but is true. The widening gulf between rich and poor is a big threat which society till date fails to understand. The poor should and must get a slice in the development otherwise the whole exercise would go futile. Om Prakash Yadav [email protected] omprakashbas@yaho o.com

S.D.Tendulkar, the former chairman of Prime Minister’s economic advisory council has prepared a report, according to which India has 38 % population below poverty line (BPL). At

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present Planning commission of India’s 2006 figure is only 28.5%. of the population is under BPL. If Tendulkar’s report is accepted officially by the Govt and the Planning commission, there shall be an addition of about 11 crore populations in the exiting number of people living BPL. In India, since 1972, Poverty is being calculated in terms of calories. 2100 calories for Urban and 2400 calories for rural areas are the yardsticks to measure poverty in India. Tendulkar has used different methodology for this survey and took education, health, sanitation, nutrition and household income etc into account while calculating Poverty, the definition of which has always been a point of difference amongst economists and experts. Many experts, economists and rights activists believe, and they give some convincing arguments also to support their views, that poverty 2

measurement formula in India is not satisfactory, there are actually more people below BPL, they argue. Efforts has had been made earlier also by the government in order to find a broader consensus on the definition of poverty. One N.C.Saxena committee was formed by government in June this year which suggested that 50% people are under BPL. In 2007, Arjun Sengupta, associated with National commission for enterprises in unorganised sector, said that 77% of Indians are in BPL. Only a couple of years ago, NSSO, the national sampling govt organisation, has thrown a figure in the public domain that about 70% of populations in India don’t even spend 20Rs/- a day on them. Whereas in this country itself, there are people who gifts 700 crores plane to his wife on birthday. The number of HNI in India is increasing with galloping speed and it has 3

crossed one lakh figure till date. What a contrast and irony in deed! Nitish Kr, CM of Bihar, only a couple of years ago, organised one ‘Global Seminar’ at Patna for evolving a unanimous definition on poverty. It was attended by a plethora of luminaries from across different fields ranging from economy to science and from NGO to government functionaries. The seminar deliberated upon ‘Poverty’ and consensus was arrived at that the definition of poverty should be made ‘broad based’. Kumar had called on the union government to reconsider the determinants to define the poverty. The report of Tendular has vindicated the stand of Nitish kumar. FALL OUT ON PROPOSED NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY ACT- the union government is to come out with a historic bill on food security in the next session of parliament. The 4

proposed legislation is historic in the sense that it would guarantee availability of at least 25 Kg of grains to one BPL families per month @ 3 Rs/-. The proposed legislation would incur an additional 9500 crore rupees on the subsidy of the grains. At present government is incurring 37,010 crore rupees on the subsidy of the food meant for BPL families.

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