Poverty data released by the Planning Commission on Tuesday says the number of poor in Jharkhand dipped by a little over 2 per cent between 2009-10 and 2011-12, adding that 63.04 per cent population is still poor in the State.
Poverty in the country declined to a record 22 per cent in the same period. While the trend is not surprising in a politically unstable and corruption-ridden State, the extent of the decline has opened up a debate on factors that have led to it. The numbers themselves may be debatable but they are reflective of a broader trend.
The decline in poverty in rural areas has been just a little over one per cent. It logged 40.84 per cent from 41.60 per cent in 2009-10. However, in urban areas the poverty declined by around seven per cent to 24.83 per cent from 31.80 in 2009-10. Obviously, Jharkhand’s performance in poverty alleviation is dismal compared to states like Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand and West Bengal which have registered a drop of 20, 5.41 and 6.74 and 6.72 per cent of the poor, respectively.
The latest estimates, based on a new poverty line reached through the Tendulkar methodology, has already stirred a debate on effectiveness of the measure in capturing the actual number of people living below the poverty line. Regional director of Institute of Human Development Harishwar Dayal said the “Hindu growth theory” aptly applies to Jharkhand economy beset with multi-dimensional problems.
Professor Rajkrishna, an Indian economist, had coined the term ‘Hindu rate of growth’ in 1978 to characterise the slow growth and to explain it against the backdrop of socialistic economic policies. “The data suggests that there has been an average rate of less than two per cent poverty fall since 2004-05. The number of poor in Jharkhand dipped by 6.2 per cent between 2004-05 and 2009-10,” he pointed out.
He added that since the Tendulkar Committee had drawn the poverty line based on monthly per-capita consumption expenditure, it would suggest that income generation, particularly in urban areas, had improved. “Even if people migrate they send money back to their homes,” Dayal said. The per capita income in urban areas has been pegged at Rs 974 while it is 748 in rural areas.
The national per capita income is Rs 1000 for urban areas and Rs 816 in rural areas. “It also suggests that the poverty level is declining not because of the government intervention or execution of the national rural job scheme but due to rising migration, growth in construction works etc which have improved the wage rate,” he pointed out. Ranchi University’s professor Ramesh Sharan said that the poverty decline is not substantial simply because there is no growth in agriculture and allied activities which help to reduce the number of poor. “There is stagnation in rural economy. There has been no creation of jobs, The manufacturing sector also does not paint a rosy picture,” he added.
“Though we should not take the Planning Commission data seriously, but the debatable data also puts Jharkhand among the poorest performers in the country ringing an alarm bell for political establishment and babudom,” he maintained. The fresh estimates released by the plan panel are based on the Tendulkar methodology, which was criticized for fixing poverty lines that were too low at Rs.22.42 per person per day in rural areas and Rs.28.65 in urban areas. Following this, the government set up another committee under the chairman of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council, C. Rangarajan, to look at a methodology for determining poverty lines and estimating poverty.
The Commission communiqué said that since the new committee’s report is expected in a year’s time, it followed the Tendulkar methodology to derive the current estimates. The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed the Planning Commission’s calculations as statistical jugglery. “This a gimmick and a cruel joke on the country to benefit in the lok Sabha elections, due by May, when the Congress will seek a third consecutive term,” said Opposition leader Arjun Munda. “Besides, it will also bring down the number of BPl families in the state at a time when demands were pouring in from all quarters to include more people in the classification and also deprive the State of the required food grains from the Centre,” he said. Poverty estimates are used to determine public access to welfare benefits such as subsidised food. The Planning Commission’s figures will be used by the State to start identifying beneficiaries for the new Food Security scheme.