Poverty And Tribals
TRIBALS, by all accounts, belong to the lowest rung of the society in terms of poverty, education and health; but the recent caste survey, some observations have been published in some newspapers (IE : 25-6-15 & HH : 26-6-15) shows a different picture.
BUT first, we must know who is poor in India and whether the conclusion is tenable. There is no standard definition of poverty in India. Different committies have given different recommendations. The most amusing is the one given by erstwhile Planning Commission according to which the country has only those many poor as can be catered by the government. But, the most interesting are the figures relied upon by GoI, i.e. Rs. 26/- and Rs. 32/- per day for rural and urban people respectively.
HERE, I have a point. Creamy layer for OBCs was initially fixed at Rs. 1.00 lakh annually, that was raised to Rs. 2.5 lakhs and then further to Rs. 6.0 lakhs. 9It is being raised further.) Meanwhile BPL limit has remained the same. It means, the range of middle class is so large that it can cover more than half the populace. The BPL limit has not been raised even to accomodate inflation, forget about UN recommendations. Anyway.
ACCORDING to the 2015 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative,440 million of the world's 1.6 billion poverty-stricken people (equivalent to the population of 25 African countries) live in eight states of India; namely, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh.Chhattisgarh, Orissa Rajasthan and West Bengal - all (heavily populated by SCs&/STs. Ironically, World Development Report, 2015 titled 'Mind, Society and Behaviour', based on Behavioural Economics and heavily supported by neoliberal economic thought claims (sic) poverty as a behavioural trait. It says that poor people have low I.Q. (It is a racist argument, as everyone knows that development of brain depends on availability of nutrition and not on income)
THE Caste Survey in question covered 17.91 crore rural households of which only 21.53% belonged to SCs & STs. Today, both these communities together account for more than 25% of country's total population a large majority of which lives in rural areas. Therefore, it seems quite likely that the data have been deliberately fabricated to suit to the needs of planners. It is a well known fact that almost 10 million people every year slip into the web of poverty because of health issues, related treatment costs and loan taken therefor. So........
BUT first, we must know who is poor in India and whether the conclusion is tenable. There is no standard definition of poverty in India. Different committies have given different recommendations. The most amusing is the one given by erstwhile Planning Commission according to which the country has only those many poor as can be catered by the government. But, the most interesting are the figures relied upon by GoI, i.e. Rs. 26/- and Rs. 32/- per day for rural and urban people respectively.
HERE, I have a point. Creamy layer for OBCs was initially fixed at Rs. 1.00 lakh annually, that was raised to Rs. 2.5 lakhs and then further to Rs. 6.0 lakhs. 9It is being raised further.) Meanwhile BPL limit has remained the same. It means, the range of middle class is so large that it can cover more than half the populace. The BPL limit has not been raised even to accomodate inflation, forget about UN recommendations. Anyway.
ACCORDING to the 2015 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative,440 million of the world's 1.6 billion poverty-stricken people (equivalent to the population of 25 African countries) live in eight states of India; namely, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh.Chhattisgarh, Orissa Rajasthan and West Bengal - all (heavily populated by SCs&/STs. Ironically, World Development Report, 2015 titled 'Mind, Society and Behaviour', based on Behavioural Economics and heavily supported by neoliberal economic thought claims (sic) poverty as a behavioural trait. It says that poor people have low I.Q. (It is a racist argument, as everyone knows that development of brain depends on availability of nutrition and not on income)
THE Caste Survey in question covered 17.91 crore rural households of which only 21.53% belonged to SCs & STs. Today, both these communities together account for more than 25% of country's total population a large majority of which lives in rural areas. Therefore, it seems quite likely that the data have been deliberately fabricated to suit to the needs of planners. It is a well known fact that almost 10 million people every year slip into the web of poverty because of health issues, related treatment costs and loan taken therefor. So........
There is no doubt that the data has been deliberately fabricated to suit to the need of planners....what we require currently is a strong lobby for poor people .. SCs and STs ..they need to be united rather than be divided by caste lines....OBCs are a strong lobby while SCs and STs are divided ...the government will do anything but only to get votes, so we need to spread awareness among them, make them realize their rights and help them form a united front and a strong lobby
ReplyDelete