Poverty List

The politicians and the economists in India are unable to decide and define the poverty criterion satisfactorily and scientifically so far, although the reason is not at dispute. Probably it is easier to define the richness of an Indian citizen or household than to determine the criterion of poverty. Despite pressure from the Supreme Court on the Planning Commission and the Union Government, the latter is not in a position to answer the question on the poverty line and nature of destitution prevalent in the country at present and the steps taken by the governments to address them. Rather the Union Cabinet on Thursday May 19, 2011 cleared the BPL (Below Poverty Line) census to identify the country’s poor while asking the Ministry of Rural Development to consult National Advisory Council member N.C.Saksena on certain criteria for exclusion of people from the poverty list. It means the cabinet was in a hurry to permit census without laying down the guidelines on poverty definition due to differing views expressed on the subject by the ministers. Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia is practically unprepared and helpless in this regard. That means the UPA’s cabinet supposed to be committed for ‘aam admi’ (common man) and headed by Dr Manmohan Singh has not been in a position to clearly define BPL for the last 6-7 years. But several thousand crores of rupees have been doled out in the name of the poor under various schemes so far.

One is not aware as to how much of a sum would be spent on BPL census both in urban and rural areas. We are just through a decennial comprehensive population census at a colossal sum of money. Now again another census! Another announcement is still more damaging i.e the census be used to enumerate castes to collect figure of OBCs for the first time which they probably failed to do in population census. OBC’s leaders have welcomed this decision but generally speaking it is a regressive step in the country’s development because we are supposed to move away from a caste-ridden society to a progressive caste-less society. Unfortunately in the name of castes we are dividing the Indian society further and more, even after 64 years of independence, to create tension and misunderstanding between the people. The best course would be to select the economically backward sections or individuals and help them in several ways.