No one argues that poverty in India is widespread. This despite 63 years of Independence out of which 43 was under a socialist leaning mixed economy which is ostenably for the poor, and the last two decades which saw a 'Liberated' Indian Economy. Our politicians boast of 8% GDP growth rate and have accurate figures (though they fudge the inflation figures and the fiscal deficit figures) on any macro economic indicator.
But when it comes to assessing how much of India is really poor, there is absolutely no consensus amongst the various arms of the Government, and no one cares.
The Planning Commission considers 27.3% of the rural households are below the poverty line (BPL). Another group, N C Saxena Experts Group, which assesses poverty based on Calory intake, estimated that 50% of the rural households are BPL. That is not all. Arjun Sengupta Commission found that 77% of the Indians live on less than Rs 20 a day, which definitely means abject poverty, while Suresh Tendulkar Committee says only 37.2% lives BPL. All this while the international norm for BPL is < $1 (=Rs 45) per day, a threshold which UN wants to raise to $ 2 taking into consideration the depreciating value of currencies.
During the last election campaign, our venerable Prime Minister asked for a second term for UPA, on the premise that if voted back to power, the Congress Government will wipe out poverty in 100 days. Many 100 days have come and gone since. The least he can do is to get an accurate figure of the number of people BPL AND THEN START doing something to alleviate their misery.
