DEVELOPMENT DEFICIT
BY SUDARSHAN CHHOTORAY
Often extreme poverty compels human being to take extreme steps. The story of Santoshi is one such in Odisha. She had to resort to child sale being unable to take care of her one-and-half-year-old girl for Rs 500 in Malkangiri on September 13. The police rescued the kid Rani along with Santoshi with the help of locals.
Despite tall claims by the Governments both at the Centre and State, many women like Santoshi are not finding means of livelihood. The much-hyped MGNREGS, Mo Diha Mo Kudia, and Antodaya schemes could prove to be of no use for them.
Santoshi is among the 65 million Indians who are living under abject poverty and hunger. This is despite the so-called nine per cent growth story. Out of world’s every four hungry persons, one is living in India and 40 per cent of world’s hungry lives in South Asia. A study conducted by Britain-based charity organisation OXFAM said there is no significant change in quantum of figurers of hungry people during the period from 1990 to 2005. The situation further aggravated following the uncontrolled price of essential commodities and foodgrains in 2008. OXFAM has predicted by 2030 more people will be starving for no fault of theirs but because of the spiralling prices of foodgrains. And with the alarming rise of population and impact of climate change, prices of food grain will increase between 120 and 180 per cent. International Monetary Fund (IMF) also has predicted that if the recent trends in inflation and price rise of essential commodities will continue then more than 44 million people will be further marginalised.
For States like Odisha, the prediction is more relevant. The State with second highest rate of Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in the country has more than 52 per cent of infants as undernourished. Data available with State Health and Family Welfare Department has stated that 52 per cent of children in the age group of 0 to 3 years are malnourished, but it again stressed that acute malnutrition rate decreased by 2 per cent. Similarly, per capita income in 15 out of 30 districts is less than the average but the Government still maintains the rise in per capita income as 70 per cent.
On the other hand, despite more allocations and introduction of a number of anti-poverty programmes, incidence of poverty in KBK region in the State, has been the matter of grave concern for the policy makers.
According to a Government report, poverty rate is gradually reducing. The report says, while the rate of decrease was 7.2 per cent during 1999-2000 and 2004-2005, it came down to11.73 per cent during 2004-2005 and 2007-2008. And it reduced to 24.26 per cent in KBK, especially in South Odisha. Further the report said though there was hardly any poverty reduction in the State in the 90s, Odisha has been able to reduce poverty at faster rates in recent years. As per the 61st round of NSS data, poverty declined in all NSS regions of Odisha, with the coastal region registering the sharpest decline. The extent of poverty in southern and northern regions is still very high and remains a matter of concern. The State witnesses wide regional and social disparities in development. All regions have not developed uniformly, the review added.
To remove the regional disparities and backwardness both the State and Union Governments have implemented a series of development programmes like Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP), Backward Regions Grant Fund (BGRF), Biju KBK Yogana, Biju Kandhamal and Gajapati Yogana, Gopabandhu Gramin Yogana and Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) etc. Thousands of crores of rupees have been pumped in to them but in vain. During the last 15-20 years, more than Rs 3,500 crore has been spent. Moreover, the Union Government had sanctioned Rs 1833.95 crore under the RLATP between 1998-99 and 2009-10 and out of this the State Government has spent Rs 1828.18 crore which was 99.69 per cent. The amount has been spent in developing agriculture, health and education status of the people but how far it fetched results is still a bigger question. The Government has claimed that they have reduced school dropout ratio from 57.13 per cent in 1996-97 to 6.79 per cent in 2008-09. Poverty in the region came down by 24.6 percentage points from 87.14 per cent in 1999-2000 to 62.50 per cent in 2004-05 and by 16.9 percentage points from 62.50 per cent in 2004-05 to 45.65 per cent in 2007-08. And to move forward, the State Government has submitted a new eight-year perspective plan for KBK districts for Rs 4, 550.00 crore for approval by the Planning Commission.
Amidst all the statistical jugglery, the situation on ground is something different. On the one hand both the State Government and Planning Commission have claimed the fall in poverty ratio but on the other, many independent institutions have reported the heavy incidence of extreme poverty in Odisha. All these are happening due to skewed outreach of anti-poverty programmes. A comparative study conducted by Birla Institute of Technology in Koraput and relatively developed Ganjam shows, four out of ten poor households are not availing social security safety nets like old age, disability pension schemes and even BPL and Antodaya etc. These cases are high in Koraput. Similar is the case with schemes like MGNREG scheme, land entitlements, FRA and other convergence programmes etc. Income generating schemes and job assurance provisions should be key in development practices, said the study.
Another study conducted by IGSSS revealed 85 per cent tribal households are living with extreme poverty. Door to door survey of 1273 tribal families spread over 25 villages in six Gram Panchayats in Koraput and Kalahandi districts showed at least 1180 families fall under BPL category. Demanding to follow Saxsena Committee guidelines, Bharat Thakur of Janakalyan and Subhamitra Das of IGSSS termed 1997 poverty index as defective.
Planning Commission’s poverty bottom-line
The Planning Commission’s recent submission to Supreme Court on BPL identification is not out of place which says millions of poor people will be out of official BPL list this time.
Believe it or not if you earn Rs 26 a day in rural areas or earning Rs 32 a day in urban areas then you will be out of the BPL list. The Planning Commission told the SC on September 23 that if somebody is spending more than `965 per month in urban areas and Rs 781 in rural areas, he or she would not be treated as poor.
Though for time being the Government has averted the decision to approve the approach paper of 12th plan for a week by rescheduling the meeting of National Development Council (NDC), the highest policy making body of India, the poverty parametre issue is going to haunt it.
This seems to be a long-drawn strategy to further marginalise BPL population which according to Tendulkar report is more than 40.74 crore in India-based on projected population figure of 2004 as on March 2005.
In 1957 at the 15th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) moves were made towards settling down norms for fixing minimum wage, an euphemism for a “living wage.’’ The 15th ILC recommended that in the first place, the standard working class family should be taken to mean husband, wife and two children below the age of 14 years. Second, minimum food requirement should be calculated on the basis of 2,700 calories daily per adult man, 2,160 for woman and 1,620 for the child. Further, clothing requirement of 72 yards for a family per annum would be added while housing allowance corresponding to the minimum area provided for under the Government’s industrial housing schemes. Lastly fuel, lighting and other items of expenditure should constitute 20 per cent of the total minimum wage.
Describing the Planning Commission’s new poverty benchmark as unacceptable and counter-productive to link the official estimates with people’s access to food security, 30 prominent economists in a signed statement said creating artificial boundaries to identify poverty is a wrong trend.
When asked Kesamati Pradhan, a prominent tribal women leader of Kandhamal, said, “The new bottom line will further alienate tribals, dalits and economically backward people from the mainstream those who are still suffering from the defective poverty list of 1997 and it will pave the way for rise in migration, starvation and child sell.’’
The writer is a senior freelance journalist
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