Rs 25 Enough for Food, Health, Education, says Planning Commission!
Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Sep 21: Inflation may be taking the life out of India's poor, but the Planning Commission doesn't think so. In fact, it even believes that a paltry Rs 25 per person a day is all a family needs to survive, and what is worse, families that earn more than that are to be classified above poverty line!
This includes good food, healthcare and education, all for Rs 25 a day!
On Tuesday September 20, an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court by the commission stated that family of five in urban India earning more than Rs 965 a month and Rs 781 a month per person in rural India will not be eligible for welfare schemes meant for BPL families.
The Planning Commission feels that Rs 39.70 per month is sufficient for healthcare, and Rs 29.60 a month for education in cities, without the need for subsidy.
The affidavit is based on the findings of the Suresh Tendulkar committee which demarcated the poverty line at Rs 447 a month, or about Rs 15 a day, at 2004-2005 prices. The Supreme Court asked the Commission to update its BPL norms to match the cost of living as in May 2011. The court had said that it was not possible to live in urban India on Rs 20 and rural India on Rs 15 a day.
The Committee stated that the proposed poverty lines have been validated by "checking the adequacy of actual private expenditure per capita near the poverty lines on food, education and health by comparing them with normative expenditures consistent with nutritional, education and health outcomes."
This means that Rs 5.5 on cereals a day is all that a family needs to feed itself, apart from Rs 1 on pulses, Rs 2.33 on milk, Rs 1.95 on vegetables and Rs 1.55 on oil.
The affidavit, as expected has drawn sharp criticism from various quarters. Aruna Roy, member of National Advisory Council member alleged the government of trying to artificially reduce the number of people below poverty line and thereby reduce its expenditure on the poor.
Supreme Court-appointed food commissioner N C Saxena said that the affidavit was 'insensitive'. His colleague Biraj Patnaik called it government's 'moral bankruptcy' and pointed out that when parliamentarians get subsidised food in canteens the government wants to cut down on the benefits for the poor.