Jagran Institute of Management and Mass Communication, NOIDA

Poverty: Dogma and Data

  • Wednesday, September 21, 2022
  • |
  • By Jimmc

Dr. P.C. Singh presents a fact-check analysis of poverty in India and ponders over the issue of increasing gap between rich and poor.

Let’s know about the virus first:

Poverty has been a matter of interpretation in the past and even the contemporary policy makers, statisticians, planners and academicians keep on exploring best method to resolve - who is the poor living below poverty line? The polemics involving the French anarchist Prudhon and Karl Marx - Philosophy of poverty v/s Poverty of Philosophy - is part of past memory.

In India, attempts have been made by Tendulkar Committee and subsequently, by C. Rangrajan Committee to define poverty by identifying a line that divides the rich from the poor. Rangrajan Committee was appointed following scathing criticism of Marxist economists like Utsa Patnaik. The then Congress government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh had formed the above committees probably to prove the point that liberalization and economic reforms initiated by the government have reduced the numbers of people living below poverty line. The debate has very aptly has been named ‘The Great India Poverty Debate’ by the British Nobel prize-winner and economist Angus Deaton.

Disease in Indian Context

A similar attempt has been made by a couple of economists, recently, by presenting a working paper to IMF (Surjit S. Bhalla et al) with the intention of making it clear that despite ill-effects of Covid on the economy the BJP government at the centre has successfully reduced the numbers of extreme poor in India. It is a different thing that it failed to generate many takers. Political play behind stark economic realities, lead us nowhere. The 19th century German sociologist Max Weber had called for following a demarcation between ‘Politics as a vocation’ and ‘Science as a vocation’, failing which people will question our hard earned reputation of statistical integrity. This is exactly what has happened in India today. The credentials established under the leadership of Mahalanobis is at stake.

The recently released UNDP Human Development report 2022, makes it abundantly clear. As per the report, the country has witnessed a widening gap between the rich and the poor. India’s richest 1% control 21.7% of the country’s wealth, while 40 % of Indian population controls merely 19.8 of the wealth. Poverty is a complex economic and social category that varies from country to country. Making assessment of poverty takes into consideration factors such as inflation, value of currency over time and may be even PPPs.

Unfortunately, this shocking development-gap between rich and poor, has failed to generate due national attention. This is alarming. But, probably we are living in the age of ignorance and are engaged more with superficial issues often at the cost of realizing stark realities such as unprecedented unemployment, inflation and poverty.

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  • POVERTY
  • Ponders
  • Increasing
  • Analysis

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