Q&A Economics Q. Why was the Rangarajan Committee on poverty set up? What did it recommend? Can the non-poor benefit from the recommendations? The Planning commission had set up the five-member expert group under Rangarajan to review the methodology for measurement of poverty in 2012. The committee was set up in the backdrop of national outrage over the Planning Commission’s suggested poverty line of Rs 22 a day for rural areas based on Tendulkar committee recommendations submitted in 2009.The C Rangarajan committee gave its report in mid-2014 and redefined the poverty line. The Rangarajan committee considered a household poor if it is unable to save.The methods also include on certain normative levels of adequate nourishment, clothing, house rent, conveyance, education etc. The report recommends that the government adopt the method of using separate rural and urban poverty basket lines. The panel has reduced the calorie requirement in rural areas to 2155 calories (from 2400 calories) and in urban areas to 2090 calories (from 2100 calories). It also considered average requirements of calories, protein and fats based on ICMR norms differentiated by age and gender Panel recommended that poverty ratio should be delinked from entitlements given by the government under social security schemes.It is already in vogue as the food security law extends benefits to most people and not just the BPL. The non-poor benefits because of the last recommendation of the delink. As a result , Rangarajan report has added 93.7 million more to the list of the poor. Now the total number of poor has reached 363 million from 269 million in 2011-12.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 15:58:27 +0000
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