New measure for urban poverty

For the first time India will have a standard methodology to count the urban poor households. An expert group set up by the Planning Commission's perspective planning division has submitted a detailed methodology to identify below poverty line (BPL) households in urban areas. The group was assigned the task in May 2010. According to the group's report, income-based criteria will not be used to identify the poor. Rather, it has created a simple and transparent formula where households will be either automatically included or excluded from the list.

Use technology to make PDS transparent, efficient: Wadhwa committee

The Public Distribution System (PDS) of the country has not yielded benefit to the extent intended due to corrupt implementing machinery. This was the observation of the Wadhwa Committee, which has recommended a slew of measures to make the the system robust and bring transparency to it.

Let solar shine

Food security bill forgoes nutrition security

Amidst the cacophony around the Lokpal Bill, the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) 2011 has been tabled in the Lok Sabha. Whatever the Government of India has fleshed out in the Bill is actually in pursuance of its Constitutional obligations (Article 47) and obligations under various international conventions.

Socio Economic and Caste Census could leave rightful claimants out of BPL list

Many poor in the rural areas are at the risk of being excluded from the food security net if the results of the ongoing Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC-2011) are implemented.

Hunger stalks government schools in West Bengal

Eighty-seven per cent school children in four districts of West Bengal are undernourished right at the entry level. The shocking numbers are from the yet unpublished report of Project Dipankar, a child tracking system initiated by the department of school education in the state. The project tracks the educational performance of standard I students and their nutritional status.

Poverty line delinked from food and other entitlements given to the poor

The Planning Commission and the Rural Development Ministry have agreed not to use the current poverty line to decide government food and other entitlements meant for poor. After almost two hours of discussion between the commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the rural affairs minister Jairam Ramesh, it has been decided the government will wait till the ongoing Socio-economic Caste Census (SECC) results are out in by the end of 2011 to decide on the parameters for targeting development programmes.

PDS Survey 2011 Selected Findings

A detailed survey of the PDS was conducted in nine Indian states in May-June 2011 by student volunteers. Two important findings: 1. Evidence of a major revival of the PDS across the country (even in states like Odisha and Uttar Pradesh). Main exception: Bihar. 2. Where PDS works, people much prefer food to cash transfers.

The PDS learning curve

“Kemathi accho” translates to “ how are you” in Odiya, said one of the local volunteers to me as our train made its way from Raipur in Chhattisgarh to Odisha through dried up riverbeds and parched lands. A summer survey to study the ground realities of the Public Distribution System (PDS), initiated by IIT Delhi and coordinated by development economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, was being conducted in nine states of the country. I was part of the survey (see: Selected Findings) and was deputed to Odisha, a place not to my liking, worsened further by my alienation from the language. Along with me were people working on food security issues in India, who firmly believed that India’s PDS was essential for the survival of many of its citizens.