CLICK FOR PDF CPI 03-04-2023
BJP Is Betraying the Poor of the Country, Shows Government’s Reply in Rajya Sabha
03rd April 2023, New Delhi.
In reply to a question raised by CPI Rajya Sabha MP P. Sandosh Kumar, the government admitted in Parliament that they have done nothing to measure the number of poor in the last 9 years. While the government and the Prime Minister make tall claims about benefitting the poor all the time, the data they presented in Parliament exposed the reality of all these claims. P. Sandosh Kumar asked the “latest statistics of the people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) in each State and Union Territory” and whether there is any decline in the number of poor in the last three years.
The answer provided brought to fore the sad reality that “the last data of Large Sample Survey on Household Consumer Expenditure published by NSSO was for the 68th round conducted in 2011-12.” More than a decade has passed, including the 9 year rule of the BJP at the center, that policy making, ostensibly for the poor, is going on without any estimation of the number or the situation of the poor people of the country. This explains the complete lack of direction in Modi government’s approach towards problems of the country and the poor people of the country.
The approach to measure poverty in the country has not seen any improvement and remains “on the basis of Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) as the criterion”, that too for the levels decided upon in 2011-12. According to the existing methodology, the number of poor people in the country was 27 crores in 2011-12. In lack of any step taken by the Modi government in the past decade, there is no way to know what the number of poor people is currently and whether tall claims made about the improvement in the lives of the poor have any solid, measurable basis.
