People's Democracy

Editorial

Poverty Reduction

An Exercise in Deceit

COME election time and the exercises of deceit multiply to try and show that the country under the UPA rule has greatly progressed benefitting the poor and marginalised people.  One such exercise aimed at misleading the people and, hence, hoping for a greater electoral dividend, has now come in the latest estimates of the poverty levels in the country doled out by the Planning Commission.  The manner in which this has been done only reconfirms an age-old English adage – there are lies, damned lies and statistics. 

According to the Planning Commission, in 2011-12, the national poverty line by using the Tendulkar methodology is estimated at Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs 27.20 in villages per day, per person.  Any one spending more than this amount not only on food but on the consumption  of all goods and services is not poor!  There cannot be a more absurd and inhuman definition of being a non-poor person. 

According to such ridiculous definitions, the percentage of persons living below the poverty line declined from 41.8 percent in rural areas to 25.7 percent and from 25.7 percent to 13.7 percent in urban areas from the time the UPA-1 government was formed in 2004-05 to 2011-12.   In actual terms, we are told, that compared to 40.71 crores of people below poverty line in 2004-05, there were only 26.93 crores in 2011-12, ie, 21.9 percent of our population. 

Forced by a national outrage at these ridiculously low levels of poverty definitions, this UPA government appointed a committee under the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C Rangarajan to re-visit the Tendulkar Committee methodology for tabulating poverty.  This committee, however, is expected to submit its report only by mid-2014, ie, well after the next general elections.  Thereby the UPA government can continue to mislead and fool people by such absurd statistics.  These definitions of poverty on the basis of per capita consumption are so abysmally low that they cannot maintain basic nutritional consumption leave alone health, shelter, clothing and other essential requirements.  Such definitions are even below what can be called destitution levels. 

Over the decades, through a major sleight of hand, the government changed the original definition of poverty line arrived at in 1979.   On the basis of the National Sample Survey’s data on consumption spending,  the poverty line was defined  as that  particular level of  total spending  per capita  on all goods and services, observed from these data, whose food spending  part satisfied  the nutrition level of  2400 calories of energy intake  per day in rural India and 2100 per day in urban areas.  The rural norm was soon scaled down to 2200 calories.  As per this definition, in 1973-74, rural/urban poverty lines were defined as Rs 49/56 per person per day.  Accordingly, some 56 percent of rural and 49 percent of urban were considered poor. 

Subsequently, embarrassed at the non-reducing levels of poverty in the country, successive governments have changed the above definition in practice. Poverty levels, henceforth, were no longer determined by the total monthly spending on all goods and services that permitted access to 2200/2100 calories of nutrition.  They were, instead, calculated on the basis of the 1973-4 poverty numbers adjusted for inflation using a price index, regardless of whether the poverty line so obtained still allowed nutritional standards to be met. 

By adopting such a methodology of price index adjustment to the fixed basket of consumption of 1973-74, the Planning Commission continued to dole out unreal poverty estimates.  It produced the absurdity of Rs 22.4/28.7 as the rural/urban daily poverty lines in 2009-10. Adjusting for price index for two more years, this was raised to Rs 26/32 per day for 2011-12. Using the Tendulkar measure, this was marginally increased to Rs 33.33/27.20  in the current Planning Commission announcement. 

These poverty lines are not merely an absurdity but make a mockery of the life and death struggles to survive that the vast mass of our people are engaged with today.  The urban poverty level definition would not be sufficient to buy one kilogram of decent variety of rice in the open market today. The relentless rise in the prices of all essential commodities accompanied by the regular and continuous  hikes in the prices of fuel and petroleum products  are worsening  the livelihood status of our people by the day. On top of this comes the massive reduction in the levels of subsidies, particularly fertilizer subsidies which are wreaking havoc on the peasants already suffering from acute agrarian distress.  These worsening livelihood conditions of the vast mass of our people, in absolute terms, is confirmed by facts like decline in per capita net daily availability of cereals and pulses from 480 gms in 1991 to 440 gms in 2010.

Under these circumstances, any meaningful relief for our vast mass of suffering people can come only through a universal scheme of food security.  This means that at least 90 percent of our population must be covered to be provided with at least 35 kgs of foodgrains at not more than Rs 2/kg per family. Instead of this, the Food Security Bill which has been proposed by this UPA-2 government seeks to reduce the quantity  to 25 kgs,  increase the price  to Rs 3/kg and to cover at best not more than two-thirds of our population.  This would be grossly inadequate and rather than providing food security will only ensure greater food insecurity for our people. 

Thus, what is required is not merely  a damning exposure of the falsehood that this UPA-2 government is propagating  on  this issue of poverty reduction  but  to strengthen  popular  mobilisations and struggles  to ensure  that meaningful  livelihood  along with food security is provided  for all our  people.

(July 24, 2013)