India’s poor can take heart — for there’s justice even in this world, despite and in spite of the Planning Commission.
India’s poor can take heart — for there’s justice even in this world, despite and in spite of the Planning Commission. Planning Commission deputy chairman, and expert on poverty, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has gotten off his high horse.
Ahluwalia said on Monday that a new committee would be set up to come up with a fresh method to identify India’s poor. Last week the Commission had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court (SC) stating that Rs32 was adequate for the urban poor (Rs26 for the rural poor) for food, clothing, education and healthcare.
That opened floodgates to severe criticism. Many economists wrote to Ahluwalia to try and live on Rs32 a day. So much so, Ahluwalia rushed to the prime minister for consultations after UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi read out the riot act.
Now, in a joint statement with rural development minister Jairam Ramesh, Ahluwalia said the proposed Food Security Bill’s entitlement will not be implemented according to below poverty line (BPL) numbers suggested by the Suresh Tendulkar committee.
Fact is, the affidavit in the SC was opposed by some of Planning Commission members such as Abhijit Sen and Mihir Shah even before the affidavit was filed in court. Sen said the affidavit failed to address the basic question raised by the SC, on the cap on the number of people that could be termed as BPL. “The affidavit details the academic exercise which has nothing to do with the BPL survey,” Sen said.
Many keen observers of food security issues have pointed out critical contradictions in Ahluwaia’s statements on Monday and the position taken by the Commission earlier. Reetika Khera, researcher on food security issues at IIT, Delhi, pointed out these contradictions.
Ahluwalia had said, “It is not the view of the Planning Commission that the poverty line represents a reasonable level for the aam admi.” But the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court says precisely that:
“The recommended poverty lines ensure the adequacy of actual private expenditure per capita near the poverty lines on food, education and health and the actual calories consumed are close to the revised calorie intake norm for urban areas and higher than the norm in rural areas.”
As long as this affidavit was not withdrawn, the position of the Commission will continue to be ambiguous, said Khera on Monday. Ahluwalia ruled out withdrawing the affidavit as “it was based on facts”.
Meanwhile, in a bid to exit from the current controversy, the Commission, for the first time, has given in to the demand of the states that there should be no cap on the number of the poor in the country. The states have argued that beneficiaries would be decided on the basis of a new expert committee’s recommendations that will be in sync with the ongoing socio-economic caste census. “The present state-wise poverty estimates using the Planning Commission methodology will not be used to impose ceilings on the number of households to be included in different government programmes and schemes,” a joint statement issued by the Planning Commission and the ministry of rural development read.
“This is a small step by the Planning Commission but a huge victory for the poor in the country. Now we must intensify our battle to universalise entitlements for food, education and healthcare”, said senior adviser to the Supreme Court-appointed food commissioner, Biraj Patnaik.
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