Dear Comrades,
NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that
anyone spending more than Rs 965 per month in urban India and Rs 781 in rural
India will be deemed not to be poor. Updating the poverty line cut-off figures,
the commission said those spending in excess of Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs
26 a day in villages will no longer be eligible to draw benefits of central and
state government welfare schemes meant for those living below the poverty line.
According to the new criterion suggested by the planners, if a family of four
in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai is spending anything more than Rs 3,860
per month on its members, it would not be considered poor. It's a definition
that many would find ridiculously unrealistic. Not surprisingly, the new above
the poverty line definition has already created outrage among activists, who
feel it is just a ploy to artificially depress the number of poor in India. The
plan panel said these were provisional figures based on the Tendulkar committee
report updated for current prices by taking account of the Consumer Price Index
for industrial and agricultural workers.
TOI broke down the overall monthly figure for urban areas and used the CPI
for industrial workers along with the Tendulkar report figures to see what these
numbers translate into and how much the Planning Commission believes is enough
to spend on essential items so as not to be deemed poor.
The Planning Commission suggests that spending Rs 5.5 on cereals per day is
good enough to keep people healthy. Similarly, a daily spend of Rs 1.02 on
pulses, Rs 2.33 on milk and Rs 1.55 on edible oil should be enough to provide
adequate nutrition and keep people above the poverty line without the need of
subsidized rations from the government. It further suggests that just Rs 1.95 on
vegetables a day would be adequate. A bit more, and one might end up outside the
social security net.
People should be spending less than 44 paise on fruits, 70 paise on sugar, 78
paise on salt and spices and another Rs 1.51 on other foods per day to qualify
for the BPL list and for subsidy under various government schemes. A person
using more than Rs 3.75 per day on fuel to run the kitchen is doing well as per
these figures. Forget about the fuel price hike and sky-rocketing rents, if
anyone living in the city is spending over Rs 49.10 a month on rent and
conveyance, he or she could miss out on the BPL tag.
Dhananjay Mahapatra & Nitin Sethi, TNN Sep 21, 2011, 12.45am IST Times of India
