Rs 32- Rs 26 poverty threshold an improvement; but then eradicate hunger

We are definitely improving in the level of determination of poverty line, if the affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court by the Planning Commission is any indication.

The affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on September 20 says if one earns Rs 32 a day in the urban areas and Rs 26 in the rural areas, he or she is not poor. That is the poverty threshold line.

The population of BPL (Below the Poverty Line) is 40.74 crore. But the population of BPL covered by the public distribution system (that is people supplied with ration items) is only 35.98 crore.

Let us say there is improvement, but then years ago the Suresh Tendulkar commission had stated that every third Indian is poor. There does not seem to be much improvement then.

According to the latest parameters pointed out by the planning commission, the income should be Rs 965 per capita per month in urban areas and Rs 781 per capita per month in the rural areas. A family of five should have a monthly income of Rs 4,824 in urban areas and Rs 3,905 in rural areas.

The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living. In practice, like the definition of poverty, the official or common understanding of the poverty line is significantly higher in developed countries than in developing countries.

The common international poverty line has in the past been roughly $1 a day.In 2008, the World Bank came out with a revised figure of $1.25 at 2005 purchasing-power parity.

Earlier in the nineteen seventies there was the calculation of a human being consuming 2,400 calories a day in the urban areas and 2,100 calories a day in the rural areas for determining the poverty threshold. But there was an anachronism in the calories statement as the Supreme Court itself had pointed out that it was not possible to have such consumption of calories at the-then income level of Rs 20 and Rs 15 a day.

Whatever it is the governmental attitude should not be denial of basic amenities on the plea of poverty threshold, but taking all efforts to eradicate hunger and provision of amenities.