Earn Rs 455 a month? You're not poor

NEW DELHI: The sharp erosion in the value of money and the spiralling prices of essential items may have played havoc with people's lives, making it difficult for them to maintain their living standards, but the government is stubbornly sticking to its definition of who is 'poor'.

In an astounding position before the SC, it has held that one has to earn only Rs 455 a month in urban areas and Rs 328 in rural areas to escape the poor tag. ���At present, on 1999-2000 prices, the poverty line at all-India level is Rs 327.56 and Rs 454.11 for rural and urban people per capita per month respectively,��� said the health and family welfare ministry in a recent affidavit.

In the government���s scheme, the poverty line drawn on the basis of monthly income varies widely from state to state. To classify as poor in the four metros ��� Delhi, Mumbai , Kolkata and Chennai ��� the person���s monthly income has to be less than Rs 506, Rs 540, Rs 410 and 475, respectively. Which means, if your daily earnings cross Rs 17 in Delhi, Rs 18 in Mumbai, Rs 14 in Kolkata and Rs 16 in Chennai, you are among those fortunate not to be counted by the government as poor.

The health ministry���s affidavit was in response to a petition filed by an NGO ���Azadi Bachao Andolan��� , which had accused the government of being utterly non-serious towards alleviating poverty and its failure to control the rapidly increasing population.

Despite using these ridiculously low monthly incomes to classify a person as poor, the government has identified a huge chunk ��� over 26 crore ��� as poor because they do not even earn these paltry sums.

Orissa and Bihar account for more than one-fifth of the total poor in India. As per affidavit , Jammu and Kashmir is least afflicted by poverty. The northernmost state, where urban and rural poverty lines are demarcated by a monthly income figure of Rs 421 and Rs 368, classified as poor.