27 million out of poverty net: Govt

A new data analysed by the Planning Commission says that around 382 million Indians were below poverty line in 2009-10, a decline of 27 million since 2004-05.

Updated on: Apr 21, 2011, 01:05:45 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new data analysed by the Planning Commission says that around 382 million Indians were below poverty line in 2009-10, a decline of 27 million since 2004-05.

The decline of over five percentage points (from 37.2% to 32%) in as many years was much less than the target of annual reduction of 2% in poverty in the 11th plan. What the UPA government can showcase is the highest poverty reduction since 1993 when annual rate of reduction was 0.7%.

"The results are neither good nor bad," said Abhijit Sen, plan panel member, who calculated the new poverty figures for India based on preliminary data provided by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) of its survey for the year 2009-10.

"Not good because we may not achieve the 11th plan target. Not bad as there was a drought year and global economic recession in between".

The panel’s analysis show higher poverty reduction in urban India because of more increase in income levels than in rural parts.

"Economic growth has helped in poverty reduction in India and China," said a global monitoring report 2011 of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Sen had used the same cost of living index derived by Suresh Tendulkar Committee for calculating India poverty in 2004-05 to be 37.2%.

The only difference was on price indices to calculate the cost of living. Sen opted for consumer price index whereas Tendulkar had used NSSO data on inflation. The cost of living index is the monthly expenditure on basic food, health and education.

Announcing the decline on the day Supreme Court questioned commission’s poverty estimation methodology, the panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said he agrees with Sen’s assessment and added the exact impact of the 11th plan on poverty reduction will be known only when results of second sample survey of 2011-12 are available in 2013. The 11th plan ends in March 2012.

The new poverty estimate will have implications for the proposed National Food Security Law, which is being hotly debated between the National Advisory Council and the UPA government. The new estimation could mean fall in the food subsidy burden for the government as till now all the calculations were being done on 37.2% estimation.

"It can help in bridging the differences between the NAC and the government of NFSL," a senior plan panel functionary said and informed the new figures will be presented at the next meeting of the Group of Ministers on food on April 25.

The commission is, however, expected to come with final poverty estimation figure later this year once the NSSO submits its report.

"We will submit final data by this June," said TC Ananth, the chief statistician of India.

For the next lap

New poverty estimate will have implications for the proposed food security law being debated between the National Advisory Council and the government

New estimation could mean fall in the food subsidy burden for the government as till now all the
calculations were being done on 37.2 % estimation

"It can help in bridging the differences between the NAC and the government of NFSL," a senior plan panel functionary said and added that the new figures will be presented at the meet of the GoM on food on April 25.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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