INDIA: Fictional lines will end human lives

September 26, 2011

INDIA: Fictional lines will end human lives

Debate on the basis of poverty estimate is hot. The Tendhulkar Committee earlier suggested rupees 15 (rural area) a day and rupees 18 (urban area) a day as a poverty line based on per capita expenditure at 2004-05 prices. The Supreme Court of India asked the Committee to revise it under high criticism from civil society, for which the Planning Commission agreed. According to the affidavit published on September 20, 2011, the Commission appears to be be going to revise it by merely taking into account the recent survey data on per capita expenditure -- 2009-10. It implies that the Commission would not revise the methodology or indicators to identify the poor.

Why it is so important to identify the poor and what is the purpose of visualizing them in India? According to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) report 2010, despite the fact that none of the data reflects the real situation and tends to underestimate its seriousness, India contributes a large proportion to the poor living on less than USD 1.25 a day. In 1990, 49% lived on less than USD 1.25 a day in Southern Asia whereas 39% in 2005. But when excluding India from the data, it goes down to 31%. It observed that there is no meaningful improvement on underweight prevalence among children in the poorest households in the period between 1995 and 2009 in Southern Asia. The Global Hunger Index of India based on the data from 2003-08 is still higher than other Southern Asia countries.

The various poverty indices on the other hand show the gap between national and international standard, and indirectly the state's political will to eradicate poverty and hunger. The World Development Indicator 2011 published by the World Bank proves that India is the only country who considerably underestimates her poor population. Whereas, some countries in other Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa who face similar poverty or Brazil who puts more effort into eradicating poverty and hunger either estimate more poor by the national poverty line than the international line or have no big gap between the two. It is shown in the table below.

The International poverty line reflecting income poverty is also challenged. To achieve the MDGs and to assess the country's position globally, multidimensional indicators must be used. While contributing to keep high rate of global hunger and malnutrition of children and mothers, how has the Government of India been trying to mitigate the poverty? Economic growth-oriented policy and prevalent corruption in distributing food subsidy and other social security programmes prove its failure. In addition, intentional failure in identifying the poor exposes the lack of willingness to eradicate the poverty and hunger.

Acute Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) suggests that India’s MPI value is 0.296 and proportion of poor is 55.4%. MPI reflects the MDGs giving equal value to three indicators – health, education, and standard of living. On the other hand, testing BPL survey in Madhya Pradesh discovers that many poor would be excluded from the BPL survey. For instance, those who are categorized as Primitive Tribe Groups (PTGs) — most vulnerable tribes — are excluded only because they own 2.5 acres or more irrespective of its productiveness. Woman-headed households, households with disabled persons, or manual labour households can be excluded because they have motorized vehicles or a Kisan (peasant) credit card. Some can be excluded as they were allotted housing under the government housing scheme (IAY).

The poverty line is a rudimentary key to mitigate poverty and achieve the MDGs as the state deliver the social security services based on the poverty line. The Government of India is going to kill the poor by underestimating and non-visualizing them, which will lead more poverty and hunger in the future. The international society should recommend more appropriate indicator to the Government of India to achieve the MDGs as a global community. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the Planning Commission to re-visit the methodology and to take into account the demand from the civil society as well. The civil groups of Madhya Pradesh sent a letter to the Planning Commission as below.

Dear Shri Montak Singh,

I am writing a very small note, because you have no time for poor usually.

What I have learned about Planning Commission is that, this institution do not hear voices of the poor. As these people are considered to be burden on economic growth. But let me assure you that Poverty Line prescribed by Planning Commission will certainly kill hundreds of thousands of people silently.

Hunger and Hungry do not make noise. They live short life silently and die with silence. They are left with no energy to express their own concerns over what India's Planning Commission is doing with them.

I would, anyway, like to request you to think over it again that why you want people to keep Hungary and Malnourished!! What is your feeling and belief behind this? I am of firm understanding that you just don't want society to decide what is poverty and who is poor. You want to decide at your level because you want to justify, wrongly, that economic growth policies have contributed in decreasing poverty, hunger and vulnerability in India. Whereas the truth is just opposite to your efforts.

If you don't agree with me, I would request you to live on this amount for six months and show that survival is possible on this expenditure, if you can do so, at least I would join your concept. Otherwise for the sake of humanity please don't play with the vulnerability of people living with hunger and poverty.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation that monitors human rights in Asia, documents violations and advocates for justice and institutional reform to ensure the protection and promotion of these rights. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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