THE THIN POOR LINE . . .

 

 

Numbers don’t always give you the right perspective. Those in power have been using statistics to paint a rosy picture of the country. Would you call a person with a daily spending of Rs 13.70 middle-class or rich? Certainly not, since this amount is barely enough to get two square meals. But, the Planning Commission claims such a person can be anything but poor. Planning Commission recently released a report of National Survey Sample of poverty using consumer expenses as prime parameter to prove that poverty was declining.

The report claims a person residing in Delhi could be called 'poor' only if he spent less than Rs 13.66 everyday, otherwise he will be treated to have crossed the poverty line. This amount varies between Rs 12 and Rs 16 in different States; and includes the amount spent on food, clothes, education and other household needs. Commission report puts 27.5% people or 30.17 crore still living below the poverty line. Economists like Alok Puranik of Delhi University question the report. “The effort is less to identify the poor and more to show a decline in poverty for cheap political gains," he told TSI.

The government is indulging in shameless jugglery of numbers to tom-tom its 'achievement'. Economic Professor Kamal Nayan Kabra told TSI, “Politicians think that showing decline in poverty levels can get them more vote.” He terms this method of measuring poverty as undemocratic and unscientific. The current definition of poverty is actually not poverty line, but is the ‘line of people dying of lack of food.’ If the government truly wishes to find poor then it needs to redefine the poverty line realistically.