The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Thursday described the Planning Commission's definition of Below Poverty Line as “a mockery and a fraud” and found fault with the United Progressive Alliance government for not being able to deliver on its two-year-old promise of food security legislation.
In an editorial in the latest edition of the party organ People's Democracy, the party referred to the ongoing proceedings on a public interest litigation before the Supreme Court, regarding the Planning Commission's claim that a daily expenditure of Rs. 20 on essential requirements for those living in urban areas and Rs.15 for those in the rural India was enough to keep them out of poverty.
“By implication, all others earning more are ruled out of the safety net proposed by the NFSA [National Food Security Act]. This poverty line of Rs. 20 per day for people living in the cities is worked out from the Planning Commission's opinion that anybody with Rs. 578 per month is not to be officially considered as poor. As per its report, this amount includes a monthly expenditure of Rs. 31 on rent and conveyance, Rs.18 on education, Rs. 25 on medicines and Rs. 36.50 on vegetables. A mockery! A fraud! In fact, both,” the editorial said.
It said the ridiculousness of these figures could be gauged from the fact that the Commission itself prescribed a minimum intake of 2,400 calories daily to sustain oneself. This required an expenditure of at least Rs. 44 per day — not including any expenditure on shelter, clothing, education, and transportation.
The Commission put the poverty ratio at 33 per cent of our population while the National Advisory Council suggested 46 per cent. Both estimations, however, are “woefully short” in view of the late Arjun Sengupta's estimation that 77 per cent of India's population was currently surviving on less than Rs. 20 a day.
“Such sham exercises not only make a mockery of the commitment to provide food security in our country. They, in fact, mask the real intention of aggressively pursuing the neo-liberal economic policies which continue to widen the hiatus between the two Indias, making the life of a vast majority of our people more miserable,” the editorial said.
It argued that any meaningful food security in the country could come about only through a universal public distribution system which ensured that every single household in the country — both BPL and APL — received 35 kg of foodgrains a month at Rs. 2 per kg.
