The phoenix of poverty line may haunt the UPA Government again as the Planning Commission released the new figures based on the old formula of Suresh Tendulkar, yet Congress can find solace in one fact that its much criticized expenditure on rural schemes has paid well and this may be a highlight in the upcoming elections.
As per the new figures poverty declined faster in rural areas than urban areas. The percentage of persons below the Poverty line in 2011-12 has been estimated at 25.7 per cent in rural areas, 13.7 per cent in urban areas and 21.9 per cent for the country as a whole. The respective ratios for the rural and urban areas were 41.8 per cent and 25.7 per cent and 37.2 per cent for the country as a whole in 2004-05.
The annual average decline in poverty ratio in rural areas is 2.32 between 2004-05 and 2011-12, while the same is 1.69 per cent in urban areas. On national level, poverty declined by 2.18 per cent annually between 2004-05 and 20011-12.
Economists and development theorists have been criticising the UPA Government for putting around 60 per cent of gross budgetary support every year in rural sector schemes which are run inefficiently and are marred by corruption.
According to the latest NSSO data for 2011-12, for rural areas the national poverty line using the Tendulkar methodology is estimated at Rs 816 per capita per month and `1,000 per capita per month in urban areas. Thus, for a family of five, the all India poverty line in terms of consumption expenditure amounts to about `4,080 per month in rural areas and `5,000 per month in urban areas.
The fresh estimates released by the plan panel are based on the Tendulkar methodology, which was criticized for fixing poverty lines at `22.42 per person per day in rural areas and `28.65 in urban areas. After the controversy the panel had agreed to revisit the methodology and had set up a committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister's economic advisory council, C Rangarajan,
The plan panel release 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 as a routine exercise every year.