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| Photo: Vijay Pandey |
IT’S TIME FOR a mathematics class. Attendance is done. Everybody present; Prime Minister, cabinet, Planning Commission, NAC, UPA Chairperson, experts and economists, except the poor backbenchers who are marginalised, least listened to and mostly ignored by the teachers.
The problem that needs solution is — finding out the exact number of poor in our country. Who are poor, how many of them are poor and what is poverty? The LCM and GCF are not working. The alpha, beta, sigma and underscores — all waste; nothing is working as for now. Now, everyone has to answer and thus everyone has an idea of what the correct answer could be; 30 per cent — that’s what government says. No, no, its 80 per cent — that’s what international bodies suggest. A top adviser now claimed that around 70 per cent of our 1.2 billion are poor. The arithmetic is not helping, though everyone is trying hard. The intention is not to find the solution; it’s a mere exercise to hence prove a quantum which suits them respectively.
The statistical lines of poverty might help for the observation and research-oriented works, academic purposes and in efforts to understand that how the states are doing. And I don’t find such studies waste unless they are used for justifying the subsidy cuts, fund allocations for the schemes and against the basic rights of the people. Ironically, the typical academic practice of poverty line determination is now the tool to curb subsidies and achieve the purpose of ‘target’ driven welfare which was adopted by the government in early 90s. One should not play with the lives of the people over the lines. One penny less or one penny more can’t be the basis of giving or withdrawing.
The problem started with the interpretation of poverty estimates by the Tendulkar committee. It’s report says that the poverty line targets in rural and urban areas are adequate for food, education and health. This recommendation became the base line for the affidavit filed by the Planning Commission in the Supreme Court.
This is one of the biggest mistakes our government has committed while dealing with the issue of poverty. We must understand that right to live is the constitutional right of everybody in this country. Be it BPL or not. It doesn’t matter. Not only food; the education and healthcare are also associated to people’s right to live. The government can’t withdraw these responsibilities by associating the consumption expenditure with the poverty line and targeted subsidy.
In a country which has become the biggest importer of arms and weapons in the world, the government thinks that the threat is from outside. Instead, poverty and hunger stand as the biggest threat to our internal security and growth. The government thinks that playing with the statistics can help them deal with poverty. Besides, the magic of statistics might work on the tables and in the files of PMO and planning commission, but poverty would remain there, unchanged and unanswered.
Instead of arguing over the poverty estimates and taking them on board, the government must focus on the responsibility of giving the rights promised to the people in the Constitution of India rather than finding the safe passage to avoid and betray them.
Courtesy :Panini Anand, Tehelka
