CB BureauThe major variation in figures in different reports estimating poverty in India has created differences within the government. Although in principle it was agreed that the Tendulkar Committee’s figures will be referred to revise the food security law, there now seems to be a lack of consensus, and the controversy of who the real poor in India are and in what numbers they exist, is building up.
It is feared that this lack of consensus could affect the UPA government’s key welfare schemes. The Planning Commission had constituted an expert group under Professor Suresh Tendulkar to review the methodology for estimation of poverty. The committee has accepted the urban poverty ratio at 25.7 per cent and the rural poverty ratio at 41.8 per cent.
However, the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) ministry has disputed the share of urban poor in the country as calculated by the panel. HUPA says it has based its estimates on the urban poverty line data for 1973-74, which has become obsolete now.
The ministry says that it would be difficult to devise a meaningful methodology to identify the urban poor in India unless the ‘proper urban poverty line’ is defined properly.
‘The urban poverty line is based on real data for 1973-74, which is based on the expert group report of 1979. There is a need to reconsider it…,’ Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja pointed out.
Selja has asked the Planning Commission to consider redrawing the urban poverty line and ‘suitably amend’ the terms of reference for the expert group.