Concerned over the bogus below poverty line (BPL) card owners, which defeats the purpose of social welfare schemes, the government has decided to rope in the villagers for the first time to get information about the poorest of the poor. The exercise, dubbed as ultra poor count, will run parallel with the BPL census 2010, for which a detailed methodology has been worked out.
“This is being done for the first time. Participation of the rural population will help us get better indication of the prevalent poverty in the countryside,” said a senior official of the rural development ministry, which will carry out the BPL census. The ultra poor model has been successfully tried in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and will be replicated nationwide for the first time, he said. The count of BPL will initially be done in around 260 selected villages across the country on a pilot basis. Among them, while Poharka village in Hanumangarh, Rajasthan has the lowest population of 40, the village with the highest population (865) is Killiyoor in Tamil Nadu. The training of Panchayati Raj Institutions staff is being conducted at the national institute for rural development for the purpose.
The Uniform Recall Period consumption distribution data of the National Sample Survey gave a poverty ratio of 28.3 per cent in rural areas, 25.7 per cent in urban areas and 27.5 per cent for the country as a whole in 2004-05. In 2009, a rural development ministry committee headed by N.C. Saxena recommended that the percentage of people entitled to BPL status should be revised upwards to at least 50 per cent of the population.
The committee observed that the national poverty line at Rs 356 per capita per month in rural and Rs 539 per capita per month in urban areas permitted both to consume only 1,820 calories.