960414

18.9 pc Indians

live in poverty

ISLAMABAD: The Indian government currently estimates that 18.9% of the population lives in poverty.

According to an article appeared in the economist dated April 13, a respected group of Indian economists, using the same data from household surveys and a different method of analysis, puts the poverty level at 37% percent of the population.

This abstruse debate might not normally trouble ordinary Indians. But this is election time, and particularly whether poverty has gone up or down since the government began its economic reforms in 1991- is politically sensitive. Predictably, the ruling Congress party produces figures to show poverty on the decline. The opposition has another set of figures, showing the opposite.

The national government gets its data from surveys of household consumption every five to six years, using a standard sample of 125,000 households. From this, it calculates the number of people below its spartan poverty line. The official data shows that the poverty figures have declined from 25.5% percent of the population in 1987-88 to 18.9 percent in 1993-94. Even the reinterpretation of the figures, which puts poverty at almost double the official rate, still shows that it has declined since 1987-88. There you are, says Manmohan Singh, the finance minster: the reforms have clearly reduced poverty.-APP