Starvation amidst luxury: Groping for a Definition of Poverty
by Ashwani Mahajan on 16 Jul 2011 4 Comments

WHILE hearing a PIL petition recently, the Supreme Court expressed concern over the starvation deaths in India, ironically the world’s third most powerful country. The judiciary posed a very stark question ~ how can there be two Indias? ~ one hit by starvation and the other enjoying an excess of luxuries.

 

The government has advanced varying figures on poverty. It thus becomes difficult to form an estimate of the approximate number of the poor. Poverty has been defined variously and this has further complicated the matter. In the absence of an appropriate definition, efforts to alleviate poverty cannot be meaningful.

 

Various measures have been adopted by the government to tackle poverty. Cheap grain, pulses and kerosene through the PDS, rural and urban employment programmes, free education and health facilities have been the key initiatives. The food security legislation is on the anvil. Its objective is to ensure that those below the poverty line can access food at affordable prices.


The Supreme Court has asked the Planning Commission’s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to clarify the basis on which the Planning Commission contends that people below the poverty line constitute only 36 per cent of the population. An expert group, constituted by the Planning Commission under the chairmanship of (late) Prof. Suresh D. Tendulkar had suggested a different index for the measurement of poverty. The formula has been notified accordingly.


Before the expert group had advanced its report, the government had claimed in 2004-05 that only 28 per cent of the people were poor. This dropped to only 20 per cent in 2007. The expert group headed by Prof. Tendulkar suggested a new definition of poverty; the expenditure on health and education has also been included while assessing the phenomenon. This suggestion has been accepted by the government.


The Supreme Court has questioned what the government regards as an ‘improved definition’ of poverty. According to Prof. Tendulkar’s guidelines, a person can be treated as poor, as on 2004-05, if his monthly income is less than Rs 446.68 in rural areas and Rs 578.80 in urban areas. Considering the data furnished by the Planning Commission, the court questioned the methodology. It asked the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission how a person will be able to consume 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas with less than Rs 20 a day in urban areas and less than Rs 15 a day in rural areas.

 

It may be noted that as per the basic definition of poverty, intake of 2100 calories in rural areas and 2400 calories in urban areas has been the basis of drawing the poverty line. Going by this parameter, 56 per cent of the population was estimated to be living below the poverty line in 1973-74. Before 1973-74, the poverty line was properly defined. So was the estimation of poverty, based on the requisite expenditure to attain the desired quantum of calories.


However, the estimation of poverty in 1993-94 and 1999-2000 was devoid of any sense of proportion. Statisticians of the Planning Commission were able to bring down the number of poor by numerical jugglery and a change in the definition of poverty. Critics believe that had the price data been properly used, poverty figures would have been 80 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas.


If we accept the data presented by the Planning Commission, we will notice that a person with a daily income of Rs 20 or more in urban areas and Rs 15 or more in rural areas will not be called poor. According to the internationally accepted definition of poverty, it is $1.25 a day. If we convert this amount to rupees, it will work out to Rs 58 per day. This is lower than what is required for subsistence; it would be useless to identify the poverty line with an amount that is nearly one-third of this figure.


This illustrates a degree of insensitivity on the part of the government towards the poor. No wonder it has not been able to provide for the minimum subsistence cost of living. Some time ago, the government constituted a committee for the unorganized sector under the chairmanship of Arjun Sengupta. It reported that more than 77 per cent of the populace makes do with less than Rs 20 a day.

 

It is easy to understand why it is not possible to meet the minimum requirement of a person’s food, shelter, health and clothing with so little at his/her disposal. In real terms, more than 77 per cent of the people cannot even meet their basic needs, whereas poverty measured as per the mathematical method gives a figure of merely 36 per cent. Such varying figures of the poor make the scenario still more complicated. The task of poverty alleviation becomes difficult.


As per data provided by the UN, more than 22 crore are hungry in India. According to a report of a UK-based research organisation, an estimated 3000 children die of malnutrition each day. This is in accord with the UN data on hunger. Over the past four years, food prices have more than doubled. This has pushed a large number of people below the poverty line.


The Tendulkar report has tried to redefine poverty by including the requisite expenditure on education and health. Even so, it has failed to address the reality. A ‘poverty line’ that is based on calories can at best be called a ‘hunger line’. To make it comprehensive, the government needs to take a realistic view of poverty. If it earnestly intends to implement the right to food, it must correct its assessment of poverty and stop the statistical jugglery. It must call off the crude joke on the poor.

 

The author teaches Economics at the University of Delhi, Delhi

User Comments Post a Comment
~ how can there be two Indias? ~ one hit by starvation and the other enjoying an excess of luxuries?This is a very valid question that could not only be asked to Indian government but also all of its neighbouring countries (yes, including Pakistan),one has to pose this question to himself if he wants an answer.Where is all the money going to?Its going towards the purchasing of the instruments of making war,now one could ask why India needs an aircraft carrier (the old Russian discard),when they already have few (although obsolete), the price of which jumped from few hundred millions to now probably 2.5 or close to 3 billion dollars,i think this is just plain insanity.We should have all tried to solve the issues by mutual talks and would have done by most of them already and could have become Asian giants (in economic sense) instead we have turned into the begging bowl of Asia (India being top recipent of aid,though Pakistan is not that far behind then Bangladesh and on and on).Poverty and hunger should have been the main points of disscussion here but instead we all are worried about the "Abrahamic religions".....that is so sad!Ok let us believe for a second that all problems of the India today are because of Moghul/British rule,now you are a free country ,let the bygones be bygones now,lets all get it over with and move on!Seems like we love to live in the past and we love the fingure pointing game and are pretty good at that so as to say the least.Pakistan and China is not the enemy,it is the poverty,hunger and caste system that is pulling India down in this quagmire.
observer
July 16, 2011
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The enemies of India and the subcontinent are the Mcaulayites who are with in ,embezzling the wealth of the country to their masters in the west. The immorality of becoming the biggest arms purchaser in the world whilst millions are starving is no different than the creation of famine during colonialism by the british. The purchase of arms is to subjugate the poor in the whole f the sub continent to serve their masters in the west. India never got independance but is converted to a surrogate state of the west.What do you expect when the country is led by a european. This is colonialism revisited.
jan
July 16, 2011
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"Strike,Strike at the root of penury in my heart" - Gurudev Tagore cried in anguish. The economic model and ideological burden foisted on our people by the so called peoples' leaders and all the related professional and educational organised outfits - both private and government controlled - is to be X-rayed. Callousness of "leaders" is criminally neglectful of happiness of families. Manmohan Singh shamelessly quoted the illfamous slogan of Indira Nehru Gandhi - Garibi Hatao. Seems to be a perennial slogan during his first term. Printed dollars, euros, rupees are indescriminately loaned out and laundered through western and and local banks deliberately distorting the value of life's values, honest hard work and natural resources. The superstition that everything of value in life is monetizable is eating into vitals of our people, enslaving them to feed the greed of the powerful. Welcome to globalization of greed of few.
We can continue watch helplessly or !
suguna
July 16, 2011
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In order to show India has already risen, just announce any one who earns more than Rupees 5 is off the poverty line. Even better: let the Manmohan Singh administration and its minions announce that poverty has been fully eradicated. What an average Indian sees on the street, or in the villages collecting food from garbage dumps, or begging, are really Bollywood actors and are duly paid for putting up a show that India has poverty. The objective of these bunch of jokers ( I did not know that Suresh Tendulkar is a person of zero integrity. It is evident that in order to sidle up to the powers-that-be, for fame and recoginition, he is prefectably comfortable lowering himself to any depth. Although, I had no doubt ever about Monetk "IMF" Ahluwalia. Now, I know that birds of same feathers flock together) is not to make any effort to eradicate poverty, they can live just fine with that .They can sleep, eat. drink and whatever else they choose to do, just fine. All that they worry about is how to put a wrap over the statements issued from abroad that says India has 440 million poor. Ask IMF Monteak and his cohort, Suresh Tendulkar, and they will tell you the whole business of poverty is a matter of perception. It really does not exist. By stating India has taken care of poverty will enhance "investors' confidence" (hence, it is a nationalist thing to do, eh?) -- the ultimate economic wisdom of these intellectually-corrupt anti-people individuals.
Pray tell, Tendulkar or Montak, how a person can live today with the food prices as they are thanks to the incompetent and imbecile policy of this administration, and the one that preceded this one, with an income such as they suggest. Where he is going to live? What about water, power, education, chidren's milk, health cost, transportation cost? All these are luxuries for a section of the people, eh? That is what you say. Good. The dishonesty and lying have reached a proportion which is only comparable to the corruption that their cohorts are involved and their personal hatred of poor. They hate poor. They hope that they all just die and then they can tell their western friends that they have literally eradicated "poverty." I have better suggestion. for them. Maybe they should vist Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, Belzec, Gaza strip and formulate how to get rid of the poor. They will get that all designed by another Indian minion. Get rid of the damn poor! Off with their heads, will what the these British-trained Indians will say skunks in unison with the Queen..
RMA
July 17, 2011
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