Poverty on decline even on new scale: PM

Bhubaneswar, Dec 27 (PTI) The ratio of Indians living
below the poverty line is steadily declining and the decline
rate even higher on the changed criteria of defining the
'have-nots', Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on
Sunday.

"Economists have recently argued that the poverty line
itself should be raised. If this is done, the percentage of
population in poverty will be obviously higher...But this does
not mean that the percentage below the poverty line is not
declining," Singh said inaugurating the Conference of the
Indian Economic Association (IEA) here.
A report of a committee, headed by former Chairman of the
Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) Suresh
Tendulkar, has suggested that parameters like sanitation,
health and education should also be taken into account while
arriving at the percentage of people in the BPL category.
As per the existing definition, based on calorie intake,
27.5 per cent of Indians are in BPL category as per the
2004-05 data. However, if the new criteria are adopted the
percentage would shoot up to over 37 per cent.
But, according to economic experts this would not be the
right comparison -- because the two criteria are different.
The government would like that the principle of
'apple-to-apple' and not 'apple-to-orange' comparison should
be applied when the new numbers of BPL are derived, they
added. MORE PTI PDM
MYR


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