Gauging poverty is a difficult task: PM
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said gauging poverty is a “difficult task” as there are diverse views on the definition.
His comments, on the occasion of 67th Independence Day celebrations, came weeks after a major controversy over the way to define poverty.
The controversy erupted after Planning Commission said persons spending over Rs 33.33 a day in cities and Rs 27.20 in villages are not poor. Based on this, Commission concluded that the poverty ratio in the country declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent in 2004-05.
The parameters used by the Planning Commission to define poverty were criticised by Opposition as well as constituents of the ruling alliance saying the figures were unrealistic.
Singh’s Cabinet colleague, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday said that about a 140 million people have been “lifted above the poverty line” during the UPA regime. “Our claim actually is, we have lifted about 140 million people. Wherever you draw the line…You take the poverty-wise population, you take the income-wise population, stratify if, draw the line anywhere you like,” he had said.
