As it faced flak over the latest poverty
numbers, India's Planning Commission yesterday admitted that there is serious
discrepancy between the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data and
national accounts which led to the poverty line being pegged at 28.65 rupees
(US$.56) per capita daily consumption in cities and 22.42 rupees ($.44) in
rural areas.
The plan
panel faced harsh criticism today inside and outside Parliament for the
absurdly low poverty line and resultant fall in the below poverty line figure,
with the opposition saying it was making a "dishonest” attempt to conceal
reality through “fraudulent” estimates.
The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said the government appeared to be setting a
"starvation line".
"I
do believe that the discrepancy between the consumer survey and national
accounts, is a serious statistical problem,” Planning Commission Deputy
chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia admitted.
The
Commission has released poverty data based on the 66th round of the National
Sample Survey (2009-10) data on household consumer expenditure survey.
The
national accounts, which provide data for national income, is prepared by the
Central Statistical Organisation. The poverty ratio has been pegged at 29.8 per
cent in 2009-10, down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05. These are based on the
daily per capita consumption of 28.65 rupees in urban cities and 22.42 rupees
in rural areas.
This
new poverty threshold is even lower than what it had submitted to the Supreme
Court last year, which had sparked national outrage. The Commission had then
put the poverty line at June 2011 price level
“at 965 rupees ($19) per capita
per month in urban areas and 781 rupees ($15)
in rural areas”
Ahluwalia
said, “In all countries consumer surveys give somewhat lower estimate than the
national accounts. Normally, the consumer survey estimate is about 80 per cent
of the National Accounts. This used to be the case in India in the 1980s.
Over a
period of time the discrepancy is constantly widening...but there is huge
discrepancy in the consumption survey and information we have in the national
accounts.” Lauding the performance of various social sector schemes being run
by the UPA during the last seven years, he said:
"The
fact is that in the UPA period, the rate of poverty decline is twice as
compared to the decline in previous 11 years.” “In the period 2004-05 to
2009-10, the rate at which the poverty has declined is doubled as compared to
rate in the previous 11 years,” Ahluwalia said, adding that this suggests that
the social sector programmes of the government are working.
As per
the data, the rate of poverty reduction between 2004-05 to 2009-10 was 1.5 per
cent every year whereas it was 0.7 per cent between 1993-94 to 2004-05.
When
asked whether the government has failed to achieve the inclusive growth, he
said, “We have not failed.”
On the
use of this poverty line, Ahluwalia said, “This will be used to gauge the
impact of social sector programmes over a period of time. But this will not be
used for giving subsidies like food target groups.”
The
Commission plans to reduce the poverty at the rate of two percentage points
every year in the 12th Five-Year Plan period beginning next month.
Meanwhile,
in stinging criticism of the government and the Plan panel for the conclusion
that the number of people living below the poverty line has fallen by seven per
cent, the BJP said the Manmohan Singh administration appeared to be setting a
“starvation line”.
"I
don't know which line they are drawing. Whether it is the starvation line or
the poverty line. It is beyond the imagination of the Prime Minister and the
Planning Commission to know how a person can survive on such a low income,”
Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha S S Ahluwalia told reporters.
The BJP
maintained that for a person to live a life of dignity and to meet his needs of
clothing, food, medical facilities and the like, the amount of 29 rupees ($.59)
is too little.
Asserting
that the Planning Commission’s poverty estimates was a "dishonest attempt”
to conceal the reality of glaring inequalities and increasing poverty in India,
the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) asked the Prime Minister to shun
these figures and urged him not to use these “fraudulent” estimates to deny
poor people of their right to Below Poverty Line cards.
In a
statement, the CPI-M said even the recently released Household Amenities and
Assets Census of 2011 shows the extent of poverty in different spheres in India
but the Planning Commission has set an "absurdly low” national poverty
line of 22.40 rupees per day for an
adult in rural areas and 28.65 rupees per day for an adult in urban areas in
2009-10.
News
Desk
The
Statesman
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