August report submitted by expert group headed by Suresh tendulkar former chairman of the National Statistical Commission is a not in favour of those who has planned to make India developed by 2020. This report say that four out of ten in rural areas are poor and not capable to fulfill intake calorie criteria, a significant increase from the government previous estimate. 2004-5 government estimate pegged the rural poverty only 28.5%. It creates a deep concern among policy builder that whether our previous estimate was flawed or poverty being increased in recent year in spite of NAREGA like initiative by UPA government which it claimed a successful act in recent decades. The group, appointed by planning commission, expended the criteria which define the poverty line. New criteria include the education, health and actual spending on rent and conveyance as part of an individual’s consumption basket, besides expenditure on food. Our existing definition of poverty line .In India, since
1972, poverty is being calculated in terms of calories.2100 calories for Urban and 2400 calories for rural areas are the yardsticks to measure poverty in India. Another report published in 2007 put a even more severe picture before us .This report was prepared by National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector, headed by Arjun Sengupta, said 77% of the population subsist at just Rs 12 per person per day, much below the prevailing minimum wage, which ranges between Rs 40 to Rs 150 a day across states.
A indictment of existing food subsidy system—
This time committee report which came yesterday set up by rural development ministry and headed by N.C Sexana figure out the similar conclusion, it say that if we measure the actual poverty of the country on the basis of calorie intake then more than half of our total population will enjoy the yellow ration card. It figure out that number of poor people in country are at least double the officially declared poor in India and recommended to enlarging the category to those who entitled to take cheaper food from government.
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The calorific definition of poverty has always been a contentious issue among economists. Having a meaningful definition of poverty helps in planning for development programmes and allocating resources for them. More appropriately the definition should be based on a basket of minimum essential needs in terms of food, clothing and health and even education and housing. A person can be poor in many ways. Such a definition would prove an eye-opener for policymakers and ordinary citizens alike. Of course, on such a wide base, I would not be surprised if poverty turns out to be well over 50%. But allocation of resources based on such skewed definitions is a wastage of precious resources. What the NREGA has done is created a target employment period of 100 days, and creating jobs is the fastest way to pull people out of poverty. Hence a definition of poverty based on employment and minimum wage data is a more practical way of defining poverty.
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