Plan panel to find a way to number urban poor

To ensure the widest possible coverage under the proposed Food Security Act, the government has formally begun the process of identifying the number of people living below the poverty line....

To ensure the widest possible coverage under the proposed Food Security Act, the government has formally begun the process of identifying the number of people living below the poverty line (BPL) in the urban areas also. The Planning Commission has set up a high-level committee to devise a mechanism.

The empowered group of ministers headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had recently asked the plan panel to delve into several aspects of the proposed legislation to enlarge its basket of coverage to the extent possible by enhancing its ambit to include the homeless poor and those outside the purview of the public distribution system.

Accordingly,the commission has notified setting up of an eight-member panel to be headed by its former member S R Hashim and comprising experts such as chief statistician of the country Pronab Sen besides representatives from the commission and the rural development ministry.

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Though there is a broad consensus within a section of the government on accepting the Tendulkar Commitees recommendation on the definition of BPL,the dilemma is whether to accept its estimate of BPL households at 7.4 crore as on March 2005 or update it to March 2011 population,taking the number up to 8.1 crore.

The total grain requirement in the two scenarios is 31.1 million tonnes and 33.9 million tonnes,respectively. According to government estimates,providing 35 kg of wheat or rice to 8.1 crore BPL households itself will entail an additional Rs 13,919 crore subsidy burden,taking the total food security bill to 53,676 crore. However,the government is does not seem to be enthused to keep the cost of the inclusion open ended.

Justifying the constitution of the committee,a top commission official said,While the rural development ministry has been conducting BPL census since 1992 to identify the BPL households in rural areas,there is no such uniform methodology to identify urban BPL.

For better targeting of various Central schemes,including the proposed National Food Security Act,there is an express need to put in place a uniform criterion to identify them. The panel would recommend appropriate detailed methodology with simple,transparent and objectively measurable indicators,to identify BPL households in urban areas.

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The committee has also been mandated to recommend the periodicity for the conduct of BPL survey in urban areas or the mechanisms to review such BPL lists and also to recommend suitable mechanism for the conduct of BPL survey,survey questionnaire,processing of data,validation and approval of urban BPL list.

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