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What is Poverty Line?
Below Poverty Line is an economic benchmark and poverty
threshold used bythe government of India to indicate economic
disadvantage and to identifyindividuals and households in need of
government assistance and aid. It isdetermined using various
parameters which vary from state to state and withinstates. The
present criteria are based on a survey conducted in 2002. Goinginto
a survey due for a decade, India's central government is undecided
oncriteria to identify families below poverty line.
Internationally, an income of less than $1.25 per day per headof
purchasingpower parity is defined as extreme poverty. By this
estimate, about 21.92%percent of Indians are extremely poor.
Income-based poverty lines considerthe bare minimum income to
provide basic food requirements; it does not
account for other essentials such as health care and
education.Criteria are different for rural and urban areas. in its
Ninth Five-Year Plan(19952002), BPL for rural areas was set at
annual family income less thanRs. 20,000, less than two hectares
land, and no television or refrigerator.
In its Tenth Five-Year Plan (20022007) survey, BPL for rural
areas wasbased on the degree of deprivation in respect of 13
parameters, with scoresfrom 04: landholding, type of house,
clothing, food security, sanitation,consumer durables, literacy
status, labor force, means of livelihood, status ofchildren, type
of indebtedness, reasons for migrations, etc.
The poverty line was originally fixed in terms of income/food
requirements in1978. It was stipulated that the calorie standard
for a typical individual in rural
areas was 2400 calorie and was 2100 calorie in urban areas. Then
the cost ofthe grains (about 650 gms) that fulfill this normative
standard was calculated.This cost was the poverty line. In 1978, it
was Rs.61.80 per person per monthfor rural areas and Rs.71.30 for
urban areas. Since then the PlanningCommission calculates the
poverty line every year adjusting for inflation. Thepoverty line in
recent years is as follows (Rs. per month per head).
Year Rural Urban
2000-01 328 454
2005-06 368 560
This income is bare minimum to support the food requirements and
does not
provide much for the other basic essential items like health,
education etc.That is why some times the poverty lines have been
described as starvationlines.
The fact that the Gujarat government has determined Rs 10.8 a
day for ruralareas as the cut-off for the poverty line in the state
has raked up a controversy.Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)-led government for its mockeryof poverty, the Congress
reminded the Opposition party of how it had trashedthe Planning
Commission's poverty line cut-offs of Rs 32 and Rs 28 a dayin
urban and rural areas, respectively, as a joke. Finance Minister
P
Chidambaram questioned the hue and cry at the commission's
figure.
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Earlier in the day, the Congress held a special press briefing
berating Gujarat ChiefMinister Narendra Modi and demanded he
apologize to the poor for "insulting"them. All India Congress
Committee communications department chief AjayMaken asked, "If
earning below Rs 32 a day is a joke, how can one describe theModi
government fixing the BPL (below-poverty-line) limit at Rs
10.8?...Leaders
and spokespersons of the BJP were mocking the poverty
determination figuresgiven by the Planning Commission. Now, we ask
the BJP and Modi why theGujarat governments civil supply department
has talked about below poverty linebelow Rs 10.8."
In the Gujarat governments website, it is stated families whose
members averagemonthly income is up to Rs 324 in rural areas and Rs
501 in urban areas will becovered under the Antodaya Yojana. While
the government has fixed the numberof BPL families in the state at
1.3 million, the state has covered 2.4 million BPLfamilies. "So as
to ensure in addition to 1.3 million BPL families fixed by the
government of India, the remaining 1.1 million BPL families also
get food grain of35 kg/month, the state government allocates food
grains on a priority basis to such
BPL families, which is made available under the APL (above
poverty line)scheme, the website says.
Refuting criticism from the Congress and other parties on the
poverty-line cut-offof Rs 10.8 a day, the Gujarat government on
Monday asserted the figures were
decided by the Planning Commission in 2004.
They (allegations) are only a political gimmick to raise
questions over GujaratChief Minister Narendra Modi's growing
popularity across the country andGujarats growth story as a model
state. The allegations are wrong. The norms,procedures and
parameters to identify the poverty line are decided by the
centralgovernment's Planning Commission. It is not a new list being
brought out byGujarat, Nitin Patel, finance minister of Gujarat,
and Bhupendra Chudasma,
minister of food and civil supplies, told the media here. Patel
asserted despiteinflation and food prices rising about 10 times
since 2004; the poverty line of Rs10.8 set by the Planning
Commission had remained unchanged. "If anybody isresponsible for
such a low poverty line, it is the Centre," he said.
Asked what the ideal cut-off for the poverty line should be,
Patel said, "Though astate government cannot decide and only the
Centre can do so, it should be highenough to match inflation
growth. It should be somewhere around Rs 2,000, plus orminus."
Read further:
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-congress-attacks-narendra-modi-on-gujarat-below-poverty-
line-figure-1959118
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/modi-should-quit-for-manipulating-gujarat-poverty-figures-congress-1371129.html?utm_source=ref_article
http://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/political-slug-fest-over-gujarat-poverty-line-
114020300970_1.html
