The line of poverty

So, the Rangrajan report regarding the poverty line and the count of poor in india has been presented.  Statistics bulging out in the report are in total conflict with those holding place in the report presented by Mr. Suresh Tendulkar, one of the finest economists of india. This Rangrajan report was been impatiently awaited after the Tendulkar report had fixed the poverty line to an arguably low level which actually acknowledged the then government of reducing the BPL population in india. Skipping the statistics, I straightaway highlight a flaw, in fact a blunder in our way of working. The count of poor is based only on a poverty line. Did we focus on their actual areas of expenditure,  did we think how much they have to spend on their treatmemt when a lack of hygiene in their vicinity makes them a host to various dangerous infections, did we consider their expenditure on their hectares of agricultural lands? Other counties around the world are al erring in their take on the poverty line. For ex - in Europe, poverty line is the basic cost of food multiplied by three. What do they think, a poor person will eat food three times a day and that's over, will he not have other needs?

Secondly, these benefits and favours for the BPL card holders. This has only diverted from our eventual aim of curbing poverty. Everyone is in a run to catch a BPL card and the laggards in the race are agai the poor people who actually deserve the favors but lose them to greedy with a muscle power.
Here, I appeal to reinstate the strategy once initiated by the UPA government to distribute the favors for the poor based on the their conditions and needs instead of whether they have a BPL card or not.

Among all the other things, I applaud this retake on the poverty line by the Rangrajan report. The previous low poverty marking had left many poor devoid of their BPL cards and thus the favors. To claim all those favora, they would have sold theor agricultural lands to settle in urban areas where the povert line is high. So, this new mark has in fact maintained the agricultural produce, a major contributor in the GDP of the country.