Q. Consider the following statements regarding poverty estimation:
1. Tendulkar Committee was established to review the Rangrajan Committee report.
2. Rangrajan Committee only counted expenditure on food, health, education, and clothing.
Which of the above given statements is/are correct?
Answer: D
Notes:
Poverty Estimation
- In 2005, the Suresh Tendulkar committee was constituted by the Planning Commission. The current estimations of poverty are based upon the recommendations of this committee. This committee recommended to shift away from the calorie based model and made the poverty line somewhat broad-based by considering monthly spending on education, health, electricity, and transport also.
- It strongly recommended target nutritional outcomes i.e. instead of calories; intake nutrition support should be counted.
- It suggested that a uniform Poverty Basket Line be used for the rural and urban regions.
- It recommended a change in the way prices are adjusted and demanded an explicit provision in the Poverty Basket Line to account for private expenditure in health and education.
- Tendulkar adopted the cost of living as the basis for identifying poverty.
- The Tendulkar panel stipulated a benchmark daily per capita expenditure of Rs. 27 and Rs. 33 in rural and urban areas, respectively, and arrived at a cut-off of about 22% of the population below the poverty line. However, this amount was such low that it immediately faced a backlash from all sections of media and society.
- Since the numbers were unrealistic and too low, the government-appointed another committee under Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman C. Rangarajan to review the poverty estimation methodology. Brushing aside the Tendulkar Committee.
- Rangarajan committee raised these limits to Rs. 32 and Rs. 47, respectively, and worked out the poverty line at close to 30%. With estimates of Rangarajan committee, Poverty stood at around 30% in 2011-12. The number of poor in India was estimated at 36.3 crores in 2011-12.
- The Rangarajan group took the view that the consumption basket should contain a food component that satisfied certain minimum nutrition requirements, as well as consumption expenditure on essential non-food item groups (education, clothing, conveyance and house rent) besides a residual set of behaviourally determined non-food expenditure.
Source: Ramesh Singh
