Fresh look at poverty line planned

7^th April 2012: After facing a barrage of criticism on the issue of poverty line during the last few months, the Planning Commission has decided to appoint a technical committee to look into the whole issue afresh.

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here on Saturday that the committee of experts would be appointed in a couple of weeks. The terms of reference were being worked out and the commission would notify it once the exercise was completed.

Task for experts

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of the Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellowship programme here, Mr. Ahluwalia said he never meant to arbitrarily bring down the figures of the poor in the country. The Planning Commission would never arrive at a decision on the status of poverty on its own. The estimates would be done by expert panels engaged by it, he explained.

The Suresh Tendulkar Committee had put the people below poverty line (BPL) at slightly lesser than 30 per cent (360 million) in 2009-10, down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05. The strategy of inclusive growth during the United Progressive Alliance rule had brought down poverty by 1.5 percentage points every year after 2004-05, while it had come down only by 0.74 percentage points during 1993-94 and 2004-05, Mr. Ahluwalia stated.

Debated figures

On the much debated figures of Rs. 32 per capita income per day in urban areas and Rs. 26 per capita income per day in rural areas to decide the status of poverty, the Plan panel deputy chief said the numbers were arrived at by social activists and not by the Planning Commission.

“What we told the Supreme Court was that Rs. 4,800 income per family per month in urban areas and Rs. 3,900 in rural areas is the line of poverty,” he said.

The 20 per cent of people above the poverty line were also poor but they were slightly better off than those below the line. But for the drought conditions in 2009, the poverty would have come down further. The 2011-12 National Sample Survey Organization study results to be released in early 2013 would definitely bring down poverty further, he said.

However, Mr. Ahluwalia said the poverty line was not linked to the implementation of programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Right to Education Act and Food Security Act (FSA). “It is the Planning Commission which recommended coverage of 46 per cent population under the FSA,” he reminded. It was not true that decline in BPL people would take away benefits from them.

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh said they were delinking the total sanitation scheme and the National Rural Livelihoods Mission from the poverty line. He termed the debate on poverty line completely ill-informed and hysterically trivialised.

PTI adds:

Mr. Ramesh on Saturday took a dig at MPs who criticised the methodology adopted by the Tendulkar Committee for redefining the term 'poor', saying members raising the issue were probably only aware of Sachin Tendulkar, not Suresh Tendulkar.

“Those Members of Parliament may probably have thought it is Sachin Tendulkar. They did not know it was Suresh Tendulkar,” Mr. Ramesh told reporters, when asked about several MPs criticising the methodology adopted by the Tendulkar Committee set up in the year 2005 by the Planning Commission to suggest criteria for determining poverty line and poverty estimation.

Coming to the rescue of the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, who was the target of attack both inside and outside Parliament after the panel put out the poverty numbers, Mr. Ramesh claimed the rate of poverty reduction after 2004 has been double the rate of poverty reduction in previous 10 years.

Sourece: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3290811.ece

Glimpses of National Workshop on Urban poverty ( 22nd-23rd March 2012)

Centre needs 2.3L cr to fund RTE initiative!

New Delhi: With the Supreme Court bringing all recognized schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act,the government will have to boost spending on its flagship programme to meet the estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore needed to fund the initiative over 2010-2014.

RTE has been plagued with fund shortfalls with budgetary provision in the last two years being only half of what was estimated.The HRD ministry received Rs 21,000 crore in 2011-12 instead of Rs 43,903 crore.The allocation has gone up only marginally to Rs 25,000 crore in the current 2012-13 budget.

The estimated Rs 2.3 lakh crore,to be shared between Centre and states according to a 65:35 ratio,is also expected to go up as it does not include subsidy the government is to pay private schools to implement a 25% quota for economically disadvantaged students.

RTE incorporates the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the ministry had estimated it would need an allocation of Rs 48,000 crore in the current fiscal.Initially,the government had calculated it would need Rs 40,500 crore in the first year of implementation.

According to educationist Vinod Raina,a key member of the RTE team,RTE in general suffers from a financial crunch and there has also been a problem of states not being able to spend the funds allocated.There have also been constraints of teacher shortages.

The RTE rollout has been hampered by a resource crunch and infrastructure bottlenecks,for which the government has not always been to blame.

MEGA ROLLOUT

RTE spending budgeted over 2010-2014 Total RTE bill put at 2.31 lakh cr;share of Centre and states in ratio of 65:35 Total RTE bill almost 5 times Indias allocation for school education ( 48,781cr) in Budget 2012-13 It is more than Indias total annual subsidies of 1.9 lakh crore It is also larger than Indias estimated income tax receipts of 1.96 lakh cr in 2012-13

Source:http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/getpage.aspxpageid=3&pagesize=&edid=&edlabel=CAP&mydateHid=14-04-2012&pubname=&edname=&publabel=TOI 

Insight into the situation prevailing in cities of intervention!

A National Workshop on Urban Poverty: Whittling or Withstanding  has been organized in the National Capital from 22nd-23rd March 2012 as a part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of Caritas India. The two day workshop has accentuated on various aspects of urban poverty and priortising Urban poverty as key concern to addressed by concerned government institutions, NGOs, activists and individuals.

Taking the follow-up of the “National Workshop on Urban poverty” Caritas India team along with the IGSSS-Delhi team has developed a document ( questionnaire) to analyse slum situation where intervention is needed. We request you all to go through the document and could use the same to analyse slum situation in your respective districts/areas. Hope this document would give you all an idea about moving foreword to take urban poverty situation as on priority basis.

1. Identifying slum situation

·         No. of poverty pockets (PP - slums) and the CityMakers (Urban workers in poverty pockets, Homeless Residents)

·         What are the major issues affecting the people  (CityMakers) and PP? Studies (govt.;  CSOs; Academic researches)

·         Any schemes that reach them? Any policies / High court orders/ judgements – positive / negative? Are people aware  of these?

·         Evictions – faced or facing

2. Migration-employment & unemployment

·         What all are the existing employment and unemployment situation in slums?

·         Average income of families living in slums?

·         Places from where they have migrated to the particular slum?

·         Average staying period in slums?

3. Government programmes

·         Programmes been implemented by government in the particular slum

·         Average % of the CityMakers getting the benefits of the government programmes?

·         Basic hurdles and facilities in availing government schemes benefits?

3. Role of CSOs and Media in mitigation urban poverty

·         How many CSOs are working with the CityMakers ? Is there any network that looks into this?

·         Does media engage with  this issue regularly?

·         Role of civil society, students (schools, colleges, Universities), volunteers, middle class, retired persons (bureaucrats, media, academics,… ), home makers, professional groups, corporates (chambers of commerce – CII, FICCI, PHDCC, ASOCHAM,), academics, …

4. Any other issue?

Why burden us, ask private schools?

New Delhi, April 12 2012: Today's Supreme Court judgment saying all private schools other than unaided minority schools must reserve one in four seats for poor children has provoked dismay in private schools.

Principals of leading private schools in Delhi said the 25 per cent reservation would impose a severe financial burden on them.

"The government should take care of education for the poor. Why cannot the government open new schools? Why are they pushing the 25 per cent burden onto us?" said Madhulika Sen, principal of Tagore International School, one of several institutions that had petitioned the apex court seeking relief from the 25 per cent rule.

However, the government says the judgment has brought clarity to the implementation of the Right to Education Act, which mandates free and compulsory education for every Indian child.

"The private schools do not get any aid from the government, but we give government pay scale to our teachers," Sen said. "We pay electricity, water and property tax at commercial rates. The pressure on us to implement the reservation would affect quality."

The government will reimburse the private schools at a rate equivalent to what it spends on a child's education at its own schools: between Rs 6,000 and Rs 17,000 a year. This is far lower than what the leading private schools charge in cities: Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh per student per year.

"We have to provide textbooks and uniforms to the children too," Sen said, adding that at her school, the textbooks and uniforms cost around Rs 5,000 a year per child. "The government's reimbursement rate in Delhi is Rs 1,190 per child per month, which comes to around Rs 14,000 a year. After spending on textbook and uniform, only Rs 9,000 will be left. How can you manage with this?"

Sen said schools cannot offset the cost by raising the fees for the remaining 75 per cent students since the Delhi's regulations bar schools from increasing fees by more than 10 per cent per year. Another option is to increase the student intake. "But schools are not-for-profit institutions; we do not have the money to expand the facilities," Sen said. government

The Forum for Quality Education, a body of private institutions that had moved the apex court, has not decided what it will do next. "We will meet soon to decide our (course of) action," Sen said.

Usha Ram, principal of Laxman Public School, said: "The government should compensate (private schools) in a proper manner. The compensation should be the same as what the private schools charge students on an average," she said.

The government will issue separate guidelines for private residential schools since the present reimbursement rate would be too low for them, considering the costs of board and lodging.

A key part of the judgment is the exemption given to unaided minority institutions, who are granted this status by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) or state governments. However, certain communities that are minorities at the national level are majorities in some states.

"Schools run by Christians in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland and those run by Sikhs in Punjab may not get the exemption from the reservation," former NCMEI member J.C. Kurian said.

HRD minister Kapil Sibal said: "We are grateful to the Supreme Court for providing clarity.

Courtsey: http://in.news.yahoo.com/why-burden-us-ask-private-schools-221017641.html 

Homeless find cold comfort in dump, cops say clear out

Unable to bear the cold and haunted by a death in the group, 25 homeless people cleared a garbage dump in south Delhi and pitched two tents for shelter at night. Three days later, they are again staring at cold nights, out in the open.

With no place available in the packed

Lodhi Road

night shelter, they turned to an NGO, which has an office in the area, for help.

"These people have been sleeping on the footpaths for the past few months. As it grew cold in the last few days, we decided to clear the garbage dump and put up a temporary shelter,” said Indu Prakash Singh, technical adviser to Indo-Global Social Service Society that set up the makeshift shelter.

On January 6 when the city shivered in winter rain, the group moved into the shelter.

"One person died of cold. Now, at least we have a roof over our heads," said Raj Kumar, a rickshaw puller who stays in the shelter.

Though temporary, the arrangement was guarding them against cold, said Singh. "Had the government constructed adequate number of permanent shelters, we wouldn't been forced to take such a step."

As soon as the tarpaulins were in place, police officials came for an inspection. "They asked us to remove the sheets as we didn't have the permission, but we refused to comply," said Singh.

Police officials said they wanted to check if the group had encroached land. "We just wanted to make sure that it wasn't illegal," said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

The city has 132 night shelters -- 54 short of the 186 ordered by the high court -- that can accommodate 12,400 people. Estimates put the number of homeless in the Capital at 1.5 lakh.

Recently, the Supreme Court took states, including Delhi, to task for failing to comply with its 2009 order on night shelters. States have been asked to file detailed response by January 14.

courtsey:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Homeless-find-cold-comfort-in-dump-cops-say-clear-out/Article1-794404.aspx

Tears of joy...

By:  Mr.Indu prakash singh

(indu@igsss.net, i2weness@gmail.com, www.induprakashsingh.com, Mobile:  9911362925)

Indo-Global Social Service Society {IGSSS} (10^th Jan., 2012, 01:22 am)

Tears of joy welled my eyes, to see the CityMakers (homeless citizens) families: children, youth, women , men, elderly ... being elated to sleep peacefully  in a shelter. A shelter that we created / crafted , by involving the CityMakers (CMs) themselves.  A roof and walls – all of canvas, and it became a home.  We had for a long been toying with the idea of creating this shelter, in front of our office, open  space, owned by the Government -- we the people of India.

Just in few hours, the shelter was up and running from 6^th Jan., 2012. A night when it rained heavily, the CMs, around 20 of them had a place  to protect themselves.

It also came up due to:

1.      Our total acceptance of CMs, as one of us, deserving all the rights and entitlements

2.      Our over more than 12 long years of engagement with the CMs

3.      A deep faith in ourselves, humanity, love, care and concern for the ones who have missed crossing the threshold of prosperity, joy, happiness .... To be consigned to the dustbins of development.  Doormated, dispelled, dehabilitated,   doomed, destituted,  devastated ....

4.      An outrage at the ill treatment meted out by police (inhuman beatings and torture) and government agencies

5.      RWAs and Plot Holders Associations having closed their heart to the CMs and the Constitution of India

6.      High costs of putting up shelters (thin tin cold storages – Trishankus {neither on firm stable ground, nor in the sky, closer to Moon, as one builder, Supertech advertised})

7.      Government opening shelters at places where the CMs never are, or never can reach or never can access

I’ve never been so happy (in the last more than a decade) as today, to see this structure, called home. Though tenuous, yet  remarkably  comforting; at no cost, but saving lives;  with no amenities, yet welcome;  no managers, still running or rather self – managed ....

Is it too much to dream, the same dream, that our freedom fighters dreamt of, while throwing out the British colonialists? That our very own Constitution of India, proclaims -“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into  a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic  and to secure to all its citizens: JUSTICE, social, economic and political; LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them all FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the Nation.”

Can government give up the stratagems that it’s wont to play? : 

1.      First not doing its task of preparing  a long term plan and  opening permanent shelter, as asked by both the Apex court of the country (on 20^th Jan 2010, The Supreme Court of India ordered “ Direct the Government of Delhi, the Muncipal Corporation of Delhi, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation and Cantonment Board to set up at least 140 permanent shelters for people living on the streets by December, 2010.”) and the High Court of Delhi (13.1.2010 & 22.1.2010), way back in January 2010.

2.      Then calling the NGOs corrupt (stated in Minutes prepared by MNGO of the meeting on 3^rd Sept., 2011: “On 30^th August Dr Amod met the new CEO, DUSIB, Mr. Ashwani. He explained that the DUSIB is willing to run the shelters as per the court’s decision but it will not make any payment to the NGOs after the month of April. He expressed his deep unhappiness about the role of the NGOs in the entire matter and considered many of the NGOs to be corrupt.”)

3.       Using MNGO (St. Stephen’s Hospital ) to battle with NGOs on behalf of the government,   and refusing to pay for over nine months (until the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi intervened {six times in the past from 6^th July, 2011 onwards } and noted on 13.12.2011 finally, that DUSIB will pay the NGOs on 14^th Dec., 2011) and,

4.      Ultimately giving the shelters (permanent (62), temporary{40 tin, 9 tents, 11 BVKs – basti vikas kendras}) to NGOs to run.

We are committed to creating shelters spaces all over Delhi, and permanent one at that. We are grateful to the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi for  taking up the cause of the CityMakers (homeless citizens), bereft of any care and concern of the Government.  Had it not been for the Courts, many CityMakers wouldn’t have survived to see 2012. We need to save lives, very precious indeed! We all need to join hands, in making Delhi and other cities of India and the world, a home for all!

Time to create more such homes, in our hearts, then  with hearths,  and a song full of hope that will craft homes for all, health for all, food for all, education  for all, livelihood for all adults....  All in all!