Report
The Poverty Statistics Fiddle:
Erasing the Presence of the Poor In India
(In India , who should be categorized as “poor”, by what criteria? Can limited “Food-for-Work” schemes in select districts alleviate poverty and hunger? Just as Governments shy away from admitting the reality of starvation deaths, they also avoid admitting the real dimensions of poverty in India – and this allows them to justify their policy. We carry excerpts from a paper on ‘Poverty in India ’ by Jaya Mehta, reproduced from Revolutionary Democracy, Vol.XI, No.1, April 2005. – Ed.)
The 55 th round results (1999-2000) [of the National Sample Survey Organisation – NSSO] took everyone by surprise. The poverty ratio came down from 36% in 1993-94 to 26% in 1999-2000 – a 10% decline in just 5 years. The reform programme of the government was a magic wand. Did it actually physically annihilate the poor and the marginalized?
…the NSSO has been collecting consumer expenditure data (from which poverty estimates in our country are derived) on the basis of a uniform 30-day recall period since 1950s. In the 55 th round, the consumer expenditure for food, pan, tobacco etc… was recorded for two reference periods, one-week recall and one-month recall. The reference period for clothes, consumer durables etc. was 365 days and for other items it was one month.
The changed reference period increased the expenditure estimates and reduced poverty figures in one stroke…The experts (pro and anti globalisation) ultimately agreed on one point. The 1999-2000 poverty estimates were not comparable with 1993-94 estimates. Hence no inference could be drawn regarding the impact of reform on poverty.
(The poverty lines for 1973-74 were computed taking the calorie norms as 2400 Kcal per person per day in rural India , and 2100 Kcal per person per day in urban India , according to which the poverty ratio was 56.4% in rural areas and 49% in urban areas. The 55 th round results implies that the poverty ratio for rural areas is just 27%, but the fact is otherwise.) According to NSSO 55 th round data the rural poverty line of Rs. 327 corresponds not to 2400 Kcal but to 1868 Kcal. The rural poverty line which would correspond to 2400 Kcal is Rs. 567, and the corresponding poverty ratio is 74.9%. Thus in 1999-2000, 74% of our rural population cannot afford 2400 Kcal.
(Calculating poverty ratios according to the norms of 2400 Kcal and 2100 Kcal, one finds that) in the rural areas of most of the states, more than 80% of the population is not able to afford the food which would fulfill their calorie requirements.
…Relative poverty means the bottom 10% or 20% or 30% of the population, which cannot participate in the desirable patters of life thate exist in a given society at a given time. Absolute poverty, however, refers to a situation in which a person lacks those things that are needed to sustain human life – food, shelter, clothing… For a poor country, absolute poverty is more relevant.
If our experts have decided that poverty in India is to be viewed in relative terms i.e. 30% or lower, then the official estimates are always right and there is no need to bother about definition of poverty in terms of absolute norms. However, if we accept that people have not yet got the basic minimum required for a dignified human life, then we must set explicit norms for the basic minimum.
At the official poverty line of Rs. 300-340, the average per person per day calorie intake is only 1868 Kcal – just 77% of the accepted norm. the daily per capita grain consumption is 400 gms, pulses, 22 gms. Only 1.61 litres of milk per person is procured in a whole month. The amount spent on fruits and eggs enables 1.32 bananas and 0.61 eggs in the whole month. These figures show how fallacious is the argument advanced by some that the calorie intake has reduced because even at poverty group people prefer to get their calories from more expensive food.
…The expenditure on nonfood items is also ridiculously low. The expenditure on education is Rs. 3.69 per capita per month. …if it is a household of 5 with 2 school going children the amount spent per month per child is Rs. 10. Can these be the norms for dignified living in any society?
If it is officially recognized that rural poverty in India is in the range of 75% and urban poverty 55% then it changes the policy perspective drastically. When 75% of the rural population belong to the poverty group then poverty cannot be alleviated through targeted PDS or mid-day meal programme or Rozgar Yojanas announced afresh every year. 75% rural poverty demands major restructuring in land ownership and land use pattern.
…75% rural poverty originates from a deep-rooted crisis in Indian agriculture. Similarly 55% urban poverty results from a crisis in Indian industry.
As Ralph Miliband has said, the poor are an integral part of the working class and therefore poverty alleviation demands a restructuring where the share of the working class in the national wealth is expanded and the share of capital is constrained. The present economic reform (with or without human face) cannot and will not admit such a restructuring. What then remains the option with the people? The poor in villages and the poor in towns have to reassert their primary identity as a working class identity and wage a united and forceful struggle for their rightful share in the country’s wealth.
BIHARFamine in Jehanabad, Agricultural Workers Starve to Death
Starvation deaths, the 'proud' legacy of Laloo-Rabri raj continue unabated even during the President’s rule. Reports of such deaths pour in from all corners of Jehanabad, adjoining Patna , the capital city of Bihar . However Jehanabad is no exception - the dark shadow of famine looms large over a vast area of the state, even as the ruling class parties and the self-styled messiahs of social justice, dalits and minorities are busy with their game of petty politicking. People’s resistance, led by CPI(ML) is gaining momentum with every passing day.
This season, kharif crop dried up due to lack of water. And the rabi paddy was not even planted. People`s apprehensions of a famine scenario even worse than that of 1966-67 famine have come true. Now there is not even sufficient water for human beings, let alone for cattle. The water level has gone down to such an extent that all tube-wells have dried-up. It is worth remembering that this year’s drought is worse than the one in 1966-67 when the rabi crop survived and only the kharif crop got destroyed.
Below, we give a few cases of the unfortunate victims of the man-made calamity of famine and starvation, so that the reader may get a glimpse of the sorry state of affairs in our country 58 years after independence and that too, in the supposedly model state of social justice, Bihar .
Nagina Majhi, 50 years, in village Babhana, under Jahanabad municipality, died on Dec.14, when his wife had gone to her maternal home to bring some food to save her starving family. It was the first starvation death in the district.
Jhapasi Majhi, 55 years, in village Chhariyari, block Makhdumpur, died on Dec.17, only 5 Kms. away from the residence of Bagi Kumar Verma, former State Minister of Food and Civil Supplies in the Rabri Government. Husband of a paralysed wife and father of a son who succumbed to tuberculosis, Jhapasi died after starving for 8 days.
Chano Kumari, 6 years, in village Mubarakpur, Block Kako, daughter of a poor peasant Pintoo Yadav, collapsed and died on Dec. 27.
Lachhminia devi, 22 years, in village Babhana under Jehanabad municipality, died on Jan.7. There was no cooking in her home for the last 6 days. She was mother of a 3-month-old baby. On the same day, the Party held a massive demonstration of 5000 people in front of the District Magistrate and submitted a memorandum signed by 60 thousand people. However the D.M. refused to act on the plea of election code of conduct.
Rajjan Majhi, 55 years, in village Sadhu Gram in Makhdumpur, succumbed to hunger on March 3 when his only support – 13-year-old daughter – was out to collect some wood from the forest, selling which she could get some money for survival. However, when she returned home with some wood, her father was no more. She did not have enough clothes even to cover her body, let alone arrange for the coffin! CPI(ML) District Secretary Com. Ramadhar Singh arranged for the funeral as well as clothes for the unfortunate girl. The BDO was gheraoed in the village and a successful Jehanabad bandh was organised on March 7, defying police terror let loose under the President`s rule.
Ram Balak Bhagat, 65 years, in village Tetaria, Block Kako, died inside the block premises where, for the last 3 days, he had tried in vain to secure his old-age pension - he failed to get even the meagre amount which might have saved his life. Agitated people there jammed the block HQ.
On April 20, 35 -year-old Brihaspati Majhi of Block Kako, succumbed. Unable to bear the agony of hunger, he had started eating mud.
The CPI(ML) is addressing the issue of starvation deaths and trying to develop the level of people’s mobilisation and resistance against the insensitive regime. A series of mass agitational actions and political initiatives have been undertaken in recent months starting with a statewide chakka-jam on Dec.7, demanding that entire Bihar be declared famine-hit and relief work be conducted in all villages'. All block HQs were locked up on Dec. 17, defying heavy police deployment, and a successful Raj Bhavan March was organised on the May Day to press for relief work on a war footing. Extension of 'food-for-work' scheme to all districts and all villages was demanded. Other demands were: providing BPL cards to all agricultural labours, waiving of the loans of poor peasants and workers and punishing the insensitive, criminal politicians, officials and middlemen involved in megascams in flood relief funds, responsible for the deaths of the flood affected.
Starvation and Good Governance!
[Excerpts from a report on starvation deaths in West Bengal brought out by Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha]
The memory of Amlashol has not faded into oblivion. The sordid saga of the hunger-starvation and death does exist among the adivasis and marginal peasants in Sandeshkhali or Hasanabad in North 24 Parganas to the areas of Canning and Basanti in South 24 Parganas, tea gardens of North Bengal or drought-affected areas in Bankura and Purlia districts, victims of land erosion in Murshidabad and Malda, dalits of Belillous Park in Howrah in the state [of West Bengal].
Tea gardens in North Bengal and starvation
… Since the managements of the tea-gardens were responsible for supplying rations to the workers at a subsidized rate, the state government did not consider them to be included in the BPL. Several schemes of the government like Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) and Sampoorna Grameen Rojgar Yojana (SGRY) did not reach the affected persons. Consequent to a writ petition filed by PUCL, Rajasthan, and complying with the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court dated 16 January 2003, a follow-up report to the one presented by the advisor to the Commissioners in West Bengal had observed that the beneficiary schemes were not implemented properly and the workers were forced to live in a dismal condition. There are several deaths here due to starvation.
Land erosion, starvation and deaths
… The encroachment of river Padma, a subsidiary of the Ganges , resulted in erosion and reduction of land and affected a number of people in Dayarampur, Udayanagar, Suryanagar Colony, Paraspur, and thousands of other villages in Murshidabad and Malda. The affected people of these areas have no option left but to flee from their villages.
In the Jalangi block of Murshidabad, without any land for cultivation, food and livelihood the inhabitants suffer starvation and resort to suicide. In this block alone almost 600 families are under acute starvation.
… The corruption is so rampant in the administrative and executive functioning from the top to the level of gram panchayats that the welfare schemes remain a myth, not reality. Above all, from the Gram Panchayats to the local civic self-governing bodies have been politicized and controlled by the political party in power. Most of the villagers we met voiced almost in an unequivocal term their misfortune and the administrative apathy towards them that leads to their continuous starvation and premature death.
Abdul Rezzak Shah, from Joykrishnapur under Jalangi Gram Panchayat, is a rickshaw puller. He has not received any compensation for his land which was destroyed by erosion. No BPL card has been issued to his family.
Bishad Mondal possessed 12 bighas of land which had been washed away. The government had granted no compensation to him.
Rehnuma Bewa told us that her father-in-law had died of heart attack due to losing lands and all his property in erosion.
Santosh Roy is the Anchal Pradhan of the Goshpara Gram Panchayat in Murshidabad district. He admitted that no work under the scheme of food-for-work was done last year. No BPL cards have been issued. Only 530 cards have been sanctioned verbally without giving any document and the cards were yet to be distributed.
Three cases of starvation deaths in Nadia district
A 25-year old woman, namely Bulbull Pal, mother of two sons and still carrying a baby in her womb died of starvation in Karimpur Gramin Hospital . The husband of the deceased woman admitted that he could not provide minimum food to his pregnant wife for many days, as he had no money to buy food.
Sundari Sardar, a 16-year-old tribal girl, married to Dilip Biswas just three months ago, hanged herself due to extreme poverty and acute starvation.
Phulan Sardar, another housewife, committed suicide on 12-3-2005 as she too was suffering from starvation.
The victims of land erosion should be rehabilitated and compensation given to them. Full assistance should be extended to the tea garden workers. Immediate compensation should be paid to the evictees of Belilious Park and they should be rehabilitated. BPL cards should be issued to all the affected people mentioned above. Schemes like Annapurna and Antyodaya should be implemented.