Tech gr to relook poverty estimates

The government will soon set up a technical group to revisit the norms for estimating poverty. This was stated by Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar while replying to queries from members during Question Hour in the Lok Sabha today.

“The government has decided to set up a technical group to revisit the methodology for estimation of poverty and identification of poor,taking into account multiple dimensions and indicators of poverty so that the poor and deprived households can obtain the benefit of different government programmes and schemes,” said the minister in response to questions from Anant Geete (Shiv Sena),Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD),Shailendra Kumar (SP) and Ratan Singh (Congress).

The members sought to know if the government endorsed the views and procedures followed by the Planning Commission for assessing the figures of estimated poverty. Mahtab asked the minister to state how the government would eliminate poverty by 2020 or latest by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan in 2021-22.

“The technical group will be in place in the next two weeks,” said Kumar,adding that the poverty ratio had come down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10.