Open Forum
New Delhi, 31 March 2010
Poverty Conundrum
POLITICIANS FAIL TO
EMPATHISE
By Proloy Bagchi
Two news items caught my attention the other day. One
contained details of a Supreme Court report recently released that sought to
redefine poverty in the country. Widening the definition of poverty, the report
authored by a former Supreme Court judge, Justice DP Wadhwa, said that every
Indian with an income below Rs. 100.00 per day should be considered as poor and
eligible for official subsidies, including 35 kgs of grains for his/her family.
Swelling the ranks of the poor, Justice Wadhwa’s benchmark
for determination of poverty would add 500 million people to the official tally
of around 250 to 300 million poor. The Wadhwa report has the potential of
acquiring the status of a statute if it is accepted by the Supreme Court after
hearings slated for this month.
One can really have no quarrel with the contention of
Justice Wadhwa. In Rs. 3000 a month a bread-winner can hardly provide shelter,
food and healthcare for his/her family, leave alone education of his/her
children in these days of high inflationary pressures, especially on the prices
of food items. No wonder, therefore, hunger and malnutrition are stalking the
country. That, of course, does not bother our politicians and that, precisely, is
what the second interesting news item I referred to indicates.
For them, the days of the rather unwelcome “austerity”,
imposed by the government in September 2009, are over. The economic downturn,
apparently, is well and truly behind us with the economy showing remarkable
buoyancy, has taken a high-growth trajectory. Hence, no more travel in the “cattle
class” by our ministers and bureaucrats. From 1st April 2010 onwards, they all
will travel in their entitled class by air which, for ministers and senior
bureaucrats, is the First, generally, with a free ticket for a companion thrown
in. Viewing the uncalled for imposition as meaningless, many politicians
accepted it grudgingly. Some others, who resisted, were made to fall in line.
Earlier, during the period of “austerity”, the ministers
gave themselves a handsome gift by way of being able to carry unlimited number
of companions in planes by business class. If ordinary MPs already enjoyed the
facility, why should ministers be denied the same? All this happened when
reports of hunger and malnutrition had sequentially been rocking the nation.
Likewise, with 60 per cent children suffering from malnutrition in Madhya
Pradesh, its legislators recently gave themselves a handsome hike in their pay
and allowances.
Indeed, our fat cat politicians are unable to empathise with
widespread poverty. The eminent agricultural scientist, Dr MS Swaminathan,
commenting recently on the paradox of grains rotting in godowns when people
went hungry, said: “Poverty does not seem to stir our conscience”. The
statement is actually directed towards the power-wielders and policy makers,
who are none other than our politicians and bureaucrats.
Be that as it may, Justice Wadhwa’s is the most recent of the
numerous past efforts made to identify the poor. After 60 years of independence,
a poverty-stricken country such as ours is yet to identify the poor Indian! The
question seems to be so complex that it has defied resolution all these years.
Estimating the incidence of poverty in India involves the use of a minimum
consumption expenditure, anchored in an average (food) energy adequacy norm of
2,400 and 2,100 kilo calories per capita per day. If one went by the criterion
of the World Bank i.e. those who survived in less than $ 1 (Rs. 46) a day, there
would be around 300 million poor Indians.
However, a recent report submitted by the committee, set up
by the Prime Minister for suggesting new methodologies for measuring poverty,
headed by Suresh Tendulkar, an eminent economist pegged the figure at 370
million. The estimates made by States based on household income further pushes
up the figure to 420 million. Further, one recalls that Arjun Sengupta, the
then Chairman of the National Commission for Enterprise in Unorganised Sector,
in his report submitted in 2007 on Conditions of Work & Promotion of
Livelihood in Unorganised Sector, showed that a staggering 836 million (about
77 per cent of the population) live on a per capita consumption of less than
Rs. 20 (less than 50 cents) a day.
According to him, one was classified as poor – below poverty
line (BPL) – if he lived in less than Rs 9 (25 cents) a day and others whose
per capita consumption was less than Rs.13 were above the poverty line (APL).
Again, the World Bank recently estimated that 80 per cent of Indians lived on
less than $ 2 (Rs. 96) a day. While $2 a day is close to Justice Wadhwa’s
estimation, the percentage of poor calculated by the World Bank is about the
same as discovered by Arjun Sengupta. Obviously, our exceptionally high
economic growth rate has had no impact on the country’s poverty.
So, the conundrum continues. Who is poor and how many like
him are there in the country is not really known. And yet, the government
spends mindboggling sums of money on poverty alleviation, which has had no
impact on the incidence of poverty. Allocations of money, grains and other
benefits for the poor seem to have disappeared into thin air.
The question has now acquired criticality with the proposed
Food Security legislation. The amount to be spent on this score would depend on
the poverty estimation chosen by the government. With the government not quite
sure of the quantum of poverty, its liabilities on the food front could go
through the roof once the bill becomes law. With a vague number of identified
poor and an inefficient and corrupt public distribution system (PDS), it would
be very ambitious of the government to fulfill its future legal obligations.
In the meantime, however, people, especially women and
children, in several tribal pockets in Orissa, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat, etc, are dying of hunger and malnutrition. While hunger can be tackled
by supply of grains, tackling malnutrition is a different ball game.
Malnutrition descends from one generation to another as under-nourished mothers
go on producing under-nourished children – eventual dregs of the Indian
society. With the unavailability of a nutritious diet, the cycle continues, seemingly,
unendingly.
Uncared for and helpless, such people need the government’s
immediate attention. Forgetting about identification of the poor in cities,
towns and villages, the government needs to concentrate on the areas which are
struck by hunger and malnutrition. At least these areas and the people are
identifiable as “poverty” is writ large over them. And, they are not in
multi-millions.
Rendering help to them by way of supplying grains and a nutritious
diet and ensuring their regular supplies would be more rational than making
them dependent on a fraudulent and undependable PDS. As it is, the ‘really
poor’ have no money to buy food anyway. Besides, educating and advising them to
step out of chronic poverty by providing means to acquire economic independence
will go a long way to reduce their ranks. No legislation is required for
ensuring them food security. Isn’t this precisely what the government is meant
for? ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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