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India's Planning Commission, which helps sets economic policy, told the Supreme Court that the poverty line for the nation's cities was 578 rupees ($12.75) per person a month. For rural India, it's even lower at about 450 rupees ($9.93).
The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India's urban level. Local activists say a better name for India's standard would be ``the starvation line.''
"This number is a joke". There's no seriousness about the poor,'' activist Aruna Roy said.
NEW DELHI: Every day, through scorching summers and chilly winters, Himmat pedals his bicycle rickshaw through New Delhi's crowded streets, earning barely enough to feed his family. But to India's government he is not poor, not even close.
The 5,000 rupees ($110) he earns a month pays for a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water for his family of four. After buying just enough food to keep his family from starving, there is nothing left for medicine, new clothes for his children or savings. Still, Himmat is way above India's poverty line.
Rent for his room, which is no larger than 10 feet by 4 feet, costs 1,500 rupees ($33). He struggles to send his two children to a poorly run government school that costs him another 1,000 rupees ($22). The remaining 2,500 ($55) must pay for food, medicines and any other necessities for his family of four.
In the summer, he sends his wife and children back to their village in eastern India and sleeps on the sidewalk to save on rent. ``I am a very poor man. I can't imagine living on any less money,'' he said.
Using the commission's poverty line, 37 percent of India's 1.2 billion people qualify as poor.
The country currently spends 2 percent of its GDP, about 29 billion, in social protection, and half of that goes to the Public Distribution System, which provides the poor with subsidized food. Even with the low poverty line, the system, riddled with corruption and mismanagement, caters to over 440 million people, more than the entire population of the United States.
The World Bank poverty line would add about 60 million more people to that category. Critics say even that is too few, and that India needs to extend its social security net to hundreds of millions more who like Himmat, the rickshaw puller, live in penury.
India's stingy definition of poverty irks critics - The Economic Times
The World Bank global poverty line, at $1.25 a day or about $38 per month, is three times higher than India's urban level. Local activists say a better name for India's standard would be ``the starvation line.''
"This number is a joke". There's no seriousness about the poor,'' activist Aruna Roy said.
NEW DELHI: Every day, through scorching summers and chilly winters, Himmat pedals his bicycle rickshaw through New Delhi's crowded streets, earning barely enough to feed his family. But to India's government he is not poor, not even close.
The 5,000 rupees ($110) he earns a month pays for a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water for his family of four. After buying just enough food to keep his family from starving, there is nothing left for medicine, new clothes for his children or savings. Still, Himmat is way above India's poverty line.
Rent for his room, which is no larger than 10 feet by 4 feet, costs 1,500 rupees ($33). He struggles to send his two children to a poorly run government school that costs him another 1,000 rupees ($22). The remaining 2,500 ($55) must pay for food, medicines and any other necessities for his family of four.
In the summer, he sends his wife and children back to their village in eastern India and sleeps on the sidewalk to save on rent. ``I am a very poor man. I can't imagine living on any less money,'' he said.
Using the commission's poverty line, 37 percent of India's 1.2 billion people qualify as poor.
The country currently spends 2 percent of its GDP, about 29 billion, in social protection, and half of that goes to the Public Distribution System, which provides the poor with subsidized food. Even with the low poverty line, the system, riddled with corruption and mismanagement, caters to over 440 million people, more than the entire population of the United States.
The World Bank poverty line would add about 60 million more people to that category. Critics say even that is too few, and that India needs to extend its social security net to hundreds of millions more who like Himmat, the rickshaw puller, live in penury.
India's stingy definition of poverty irks critics - The Economic Times
