Teach People to Fish

The Planning Commission's affidavit to the Supreme Court that anyone with a monthly expenditure of more than Rs 965 in urban areas and Rs 781 in rural areas would be deemed 'not poor' has been greeted with howls of indignation. Rightly so! Though both numbers - adjusted for inflation - are an improvement over the Tendulkar Committee's numbers of Rs 447 a month in rural areas and Rs 579 a month in urban areas (at 2004-05 prices), there's not much you can buy with Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs 25 a day in rural areas. This does set a shamefully-low bar for determining poverty.

Read Full Story>>