Drawing the dividing line

The statement ‘Kerala is a model state for India’ has become a token statement of sorts for policy makers. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his recent visit to Kerala reiterated it. However, in Kerala many people don’t take this statement as a compliment. On the contrary, they feel that the perception of Kerala being a ‘model state’ often deprives the state of central assistance.

And they have some statistics to buttress their claims. The state government has come up with new figures about the number of families living below poverty line (BPL) in the state. The BPL ration card holders get edibles like rice and sugar at cheaper rates.

There have been differences between the state and the Union governments on these figures. According to Union government’s statistics, there are only 10.25 lakh BPL families in Kerala. So the state used to get central assistance according to it. But the state had been maintaining that it has 17.23 lakh BPL families. Now, it has come up with fresh data that puts the number of BPL families at a whopping 32.29 lakh! For a comprehensive tally on poverty, the state government conducted an APL-BPL survey last year and published the documents last month. According to this survey, 32.29 lakh families fall under the category of BPL. That translates to 42.43 per cent of the population. Thiruvananthapuram district alone has 3.98 lakh BPL families, according to the latest survey. While Wayanad district has 57.46 per cent BPL families, Kannur district has only 34.09 per cent.

The new survey report has thrown a surprise as it has just doubled the number of people living below poverty line. This comes at a time when the economic status and the per capita income of Keralites is growing. The spending capacity is also going up in the state.

A state government employee, who was an enumeration supervisor during the latest APL-BPL survey, told TSI on condition of anonymity that the outcome was “incredible” and the state authorities might have doctored the survey documents for political purposes. He said “The criteria for the differentiation was very clear and according to that the number of BPL families will not be so high. Any family that has a car, a member working abroad, has one acre of agriculture land or an annual income of Rs 15000 of any member of the family, will be above poverty line.”

The authorities say that the list was provisional and that corrections can still be made after thorough check. However, the state minister for local bodies, Paloli Muhammad Kutty, is aggressive in putting his point forth. “We believe that if there is more detailed examination, there will be more additions to the list.”