CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Tuesday attacked Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh for his ‘inflexible' stand on the process of BPL enumeration that threatens to exclude even manual scavengers from its purview and called upon the State governments not to be party to the UPA's ‘hoax.'
Taking exception to Mr. Ramesh's refusal to take a relook at the BPL census process despite acknowledging the possibility of manual scavengers being pushed out of the BPL list merely because they were in possession of assets provided by the government, Ms. Karat charged that his statement was an ‘expression of arrogance of power against the poorer people of India.'
Ms. Karat told The Hindu that the BPL census design and the questions have been so framed that it would ‘ensure' the undercounting of the poor, even disregarding the ruling of the Supreme Court in 2003 on the definition of Antodaya wherein it had ordered the inclusion of widows, disabled persons and those belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
Consequent to the apex court's order, State governments expanded their programmes to include categories which were vulnerable to income fluctuations, the CPI(M) leader pointed out, but regretted that the UPA government at the Centre had acted contrarily by broadening the exclusion criteria and narrowing the inclusion criteria.
The present controversy stemmed from Mr. Ramesh's refusal to revisit the process of BPL census after scholars pointed out that manual scavengers who had been provided with mopeds by the government too would be left out of the BPL list and justified their exclusion irrespective of whether they continued to reel under poverty.
“For him to say that the exclusion and inclusion criteria and the process of census were non-negotiable at a time when the government was willing to reschedule loans of corporate bodies and revising Cabinet decisions when it suits them shows the mindset of the government,” Ms. Karat charged.
“The government's rigid attitude towards the poor is reflected by its non-negotiable stance on issues that affect the needy while it is truly negotiable when it comes to doling out favours for the rich people.”
She said the government had worded each criterion in such a fashion that even the categories favoured by the apex court would get excluded from the BPL list. In case of a disabled person the presence of an adult in the household would deprive him from qualifying for the BPL list. Similarly a widow gets excluded if anyone above the age of 16 is a member of the household.
Demanding the broadening of the inclusion criteria and narrowing of the exclusion criteria, Ms. Karat said these should be easily identifiable so as to exclude government employees, income tax payers and big landlords.
Referring to the MoRD's directive to the States to prepare the BPL list by March, Ms. Karat urged the State governments not to assist the ‘hoax' but force the Union government to correct the infirmities in the process of enumeration.
