Urban Poverty | Socio-Economic and Caste Census

Why in news?
Data recently released.

What are the numbers like?

• 35% of urban Indian households qualify as poor
• This is way above earlier estimates of the urban below poverty line (BPL) population for 2011-12, which ranged from:
• 13.7 per cent as per the Tendulkar Committee’s methodology to 
• 26.4 per cent going by the Rangarajan expert panel’s formula. 
•  It is also consistent with findings on rural India already released by the SECC, showing roughly 60 per cent of households to be facing “deprivation”. 

Concern about numbers:

• Exclusion criteria used was: government employment, income tax status, ownership of two-wheelers or refrigerators, farming of at least five acres of irrigated land, etc.
• So,  There may be a tendency for respondents to understate income and asset ownership or, alternatively, overstate deprivation.
• Nevertheless, the SECC data is likely to capture indigence or vulnerability much better than rigid poverty lines
• The data collected is huge and it will take more than a year for proper interpretation of the numbers as per news in Hindustan Times

How to address this poverty?

• Direct benefit transfers is the answer -  
• DBT to the Aadhaar-seeded bank accounts of identified beneficiaries. 
• It has worked well with LPG, along with  “GiveItUp” campaign
• They can be extended to food and fertiliser subsidies, scholarships and a host of other welfare programmes. 

[Source: Indian Express, The Hindu]