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Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2009/08/25/stories/2009082550610200.htm)
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Social activist calls for steps to correct BPL list


Correspondent

Says the present criterion does more harm to those who are really poor
KORAPUT: The real poor may be excluded from the BPL list if corrective measures are not taken before its release, Manas Ranjan, an activist of the Right to Food Campaign from Bhubaneswar, has said.
Addressing a group of civil society organisations here, he drew a comparison between Koraput and Cuttack districts, taking into account the available official data, and brought to the fore the injustice that might be done to the real poor. He said that if an uniform cut-off level at 14 points in the poverty measurement scale was considered for the entire State, only 43 per cent of people in Koraput district would be covered under the BPL list as against 47 per cent in Cuttack district.

Survey
Under the present BPL list that was finalised on the basis of the survey done in 2002, only 29 per cent of people in Narayanpatna and 35 per cent in Bandhugaon would receive the benefits, which was well below the district average of Koraput, he added.
He also found fault with the criterion, which states that those who earn less than Rs.326 per month should be considered as living below the poverty line. While in 1978 the government bracketed all those who had less than 2,400 calories of food per day as below poverty line, in the present circumstances even persons who earn Rs.700 per month do not get that much calories of food. This was the case with more than 70 per cent of the total population in districts like Koraput. Basing on these facts, it was surprising to find that the number of people living below poverty line dropped to only 43 per cent in the 2002 survey from 84 per cent in 1997, he said.
Mr. Manas alleged discrepancies in providing information on the status of people at the village-level survey sheets, which would leave the poor out of the list while comparatively rich persons manage to find a place in the list. This needed to be corrected while placing the list in gram sabha before finalising it.
Civil society organisations should make people aware on the status of their village data so that the villagers could make the required corrections, he added.
Civil society organisations and individuals working for the rights of people at the grassroots in Koraput, Nowrangpur and Malkangiri districts attended the meeting.


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