Plan panel’s idea of ‘tightening the belt’

One would have liked to term it as a comedy of errors, but sadly it was not. Even as the country’s inflation hovered around 9.78 per cent, the Planning Commission of India in an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on September 20, declared that anyone earning Rs 25 in urban areas and Rs 20 in rural areas is not poor.

Even the World Bank’s international poverty line is $1.25 a day, which amounts to about Rs 60. But the Planning Commission seems to have its own logic. A decent vegetarian meal these days would cost not less than Rs 20-25. If one goes by the Planning Commission’s numbers, a poor man has to eat only once a day. Health and education is a luxury which, at this rate, poor people should never think of. A recent Asian Development Bank report says that the price rise of food items that India is seeing these days will push another 30 million people into below poverty line in the country. National Health Survey points out that over 46 per cent children in India are malnourished.

That is at a time when the food grain production in India reached an all time record of 246.6 million tons in 2010-11. It is, of course, another story that nearly 20 per cent of the food that is meant for these children is eaten up by rodents and moths. Denial mode What surprises is the fact that the Planning Commission is in a denial mode. One of the members of the Planning Commission, Abhijit Sen, said, “The poverty figures in the affidavit are the ones given by the Tendulkar Committee and the government has to accept it.” But the figures of the Tendulkar Committee are those of 2004-05 when the country’s inflation averaged around 5 per cent and the population was 1.09 billion. Today the inflation has almost doubled and the population stands at around 1.21 billion. The Arjun Sengupta Committee Report on enterprises in the unorganised sector had said that over 836 million people in India lived just on Rs 20 a day. In other words, over 70 per cent of the Indian population was indeed below poverty line. But the government chose not to consider that report seriously; rather it is making much of the Tendulkar Committee report which has since been criticised by many economists. The State, though, found an easy way out to raise the poor from their penury: it compromised on the per capita income to lift the poor to above poverty line. Perhaps, the government thinks it can, thus, live in what is known as ‘happy illusion’ that all is well. There seems to be a panic like situation in the media and government circles when the stock markets are plummeting. Even depreciating rupee value against the dollar too seems to be a cause of concern for many. However, the fact that thousands of people, especially children, are dying due to poverty and hundreds of farmers are committing suicides due to the callous attitude of the government and its wrong policies, does not seem to catch enough attention. This is because poor people matter to the government only during elections and not otherwise. Gandhi had famously said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Unfortunately, the government, instead of reducing, seems to be perpetuating this violence. For example, most Indian states today have the worst public distribution system. The food that is supposed to reach the poor households is sold in the open market for a price. There cannot be worse violence than this. It is time the government acted in a manner that is worthy of a true democratic state. While it is true that the government did a commendable job by introducing MGNREGA scheme in 2005 for rural employment, the scheme needs to be strengthened. Just 100 days of labour is not sufficient. There is a need to increase the number of days to at least six months, as most farmers in the villages are unemployed for over six months. Also, minimum wages need to be increased to at least Rs 200, as the cost of nearly everything, and especially the fuel, has gone up incredibly in the last one year and the inflation does not seem to ease out. Instead of playing with numbers and living in illusion, the government needs to take proactive steps to alleviate hunger from this country. It is unfair that millions go hungry everyday while the government tries to escape responsibility by playing the number game.