As a citizen of India I feel very sad that the critical issue of poverty and criteria of fixing poverty line is made a mockery by the Planning Commission and the UPA government at the Centre. The per capita expenditure is fixed to a negligible amount by the commission in rural and urban areas just for fulfillment of official formalities. By explaining the national poverty line with negligible amount of Rs. 50 to 60 from rural to urban area is not going to eradicate the poverty from the country, nor it is going to make the people living below poverty line prosperous. India is a country of villages and around 70 per cent population live in remote areas, hardly 10 - 20 percent of the rural population is above poverty line. Similarly, scores of poor people can be seen in metros, big cities and urban areas even after many self-proclaimed reforms of the government.
 |
| BPL Index |
Fixing the poverty line in few rupees is not going to solve the issues of BPL families permanently, it appears well only in papers. Millions of Indian go to be without one time proper meal and the percentage malnutrition is increasing at an alarming rate. The government and planning commission must take the issue of poverty seriously instead of routine paper work and setup agencies to eradicate the crisis from rural and urban areas. Unless in coming years and decades the condition of financially weaker section would remain same and possibly a big gap between rich and poor can exist, which would be very dangerous for democratic setup of India.
