CB Bureau‘There is no need to redefine the poverty line as
it would bring more people under the deprived category, make it difficult to
implement welfare schemes or will dilute their purpose,’ said Planning
Commission Principal Advisor Pronab Sen on August 23.
‘The higher you raise the poverty line, the chances
of helping those at the bottom become less,’ said Sen.
‘Until the report from the Tendulkar committee
came, no one was questioning the poverty line. The committee changed the rural
poverty line, now people say the urban poverty level should also be raised. Is
it a competition?’ asked Sen.
The committee, which was largely focused on the
rural areas, raised the rural poverty line from a person spending Rs 12 per day
to Rs 13.8 per day, while the definition of an urban poverty line of Rs 18 per
day was retained. These poverty lines are defined on the basis of the
money required to maintain the prescribed daily nutrition intake, which is 2,400
calories in rural areas and 1,200 calories in urban areas.
The Tendulkar committee report pegs the percentage
of people below poverty line in urban areas at 25.7 per cent and at 41.8 per cent
in rural areas, putting the ‘national poverty head count’ at 37.2 per cent.