IDENTIFICATION
OF FAMILIES BELOW POVERTY LINE
Anupama
Bhatanagar*
The Below Poverty
Line (BPL) Census in the country is conducted by the Ministry
of Rural Development in the beginning of each Plan period. It
is done by the State governments and Union Territory Administrations
to identify and target the BPL persons under various programmes
of the Ministry. The last BPL Census was conducted in 1997 in
all States and Union Territories. Poverty in India is estimated
by the Planning Commission based on the Quinquennial Consumer
Expenditure Surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO).
The Ministry of Rural
Development conducted door-to-door enumeration of all the rural
households in the country in 1992 and 1997 so that the programmes
of the Ministry could be well targeted. The BPL Census of 1992
identified 52.49 per cent of the rural families under the category.
The BPL Census of 1997 could identify only 41.05 per cent of the
rural families as BPL. The methodologies, however, adopted in
these two censuses for identification of BPL families were different
and the results are, therefore, not comparable. Nor are these
results comparable with the poverty ratios estimates by the Planning
Commission. The methodologies adopted for the identification of
BPL households in 1992 as well as in 1997 attracted criticisms
from different quarters.
With a view to
improving the methodology for identification of BPL households
in the BPL Census for the Tenth Plan, the Ministry of Rural Development
had constituted an Expert Group comprising administrators, academics,
planners and representatives of Assam, Kerala, Orissa, Rajasthan
and Uttar Pradesh. The Expert Group consulted all the State governments/U.T.
Administrations as well as the sister Ministries of the Central
Government and due credence was given to their views. Based on
this and the deliberations, the Group made a number of recommendations
to improve the design and content of the BPL Census to be conducted
for the Tenth Plan period.
The Ministry
has advised all the States and Union Territories to initiate the
BPL Census 2002 for the Tenth Plan during the current financial
year. The revised methodology takes into account 13 attainable
socio-economic parameters, namely, operational holding of land,
housing, clothing, food security, sanitation, ownership of consumer
durables, literacy, labour force, means of livelihood, status
of children, type of indebtedness, migration and nature of assistance
preferred for assessing the poverty level of each rural household.
Each household will be ranked according to the total score obtained
for classification into poor and non-poor.
One of the important
features of the new methodology is that it does not require direct
application of the poverty line for identification of the poor.
Nor will any household be excluded just because it possesses some
consumer durables as was done in the last census. The new methodology
would also enable ranking of each household in a village on the
poverty scale so that the inter-se position of each household
is known to others at the time of finalisation of the list.
The scores of
every household would be displayed at a prominent place in the
village to ensure transparency and to reduce the possibility of
errors. In case of two or more households getting the same score,
the tie would be broken by the Gram Sabha through consensus. The
inter-se ranking of each BPL household, as approved by the Gram
Sabha should also be displayed at prominent places in the village.
Once the BPL
list has been finally approved by the State/UT, after the approval
of the Gram Sabha, no additions can be made in the list till the
results of a subsequent BPL Census are available. It is not necessary
to add the households, which happen to be victims of natural calamities,
to the BPL list as calamity relief is outside the purview of the
normal programmes of the Government. The BPL list is to be used
for targeting people under the normal programmes only. Victims
of natural calamities could be separately considered for appropriate
assistance under the calamities relief programmes. If any household,
however, crosses the cut-off score on a sustainable basis, it
may be deleted from the BPL list. Such reviews for deletions may
be made by the concerned Gram Sabha once in a year.
The schedule
recommended for BPL Census 2002 has many advantages. It is very
simple and will not require skilled manpower to canvas. The schedule
does not follow either the income or expenditure approach. It
takes into account various socio-economic indicators of rural
household. Ranking of every household in the village would lead
to better transparency. At the time of canvassing the schedule,
households will not know whether they will be in the BPL list
or not.
Moreover, the schedule
does not require any estimate of poverty line. It does not take
into account income or expenditure which is very difficult to
assess. The States will have flexibility in determining the cut
off value of the composite index to classify the rural people
into poor and various other categories. The sub-categorised list
of household in the village could be scrutinised by village leaders
or activists working in the village prior to the presentation
of the list to the Gram Sabha as the schedule is very simple for
them to verify. Also, the State governments/UT Administrations
can easily handle the task of canvassing the schedule and its
computerisation. Analysis of the data in a meaningful way for
creating a profile of the rural households at State, district,
block and village levels will be less time- consuming, focused
and purposeful.
The BPL Census
will cover all the households in the rural areas of the country.
A wealth of information relating to the suggested indicators of
rural life will, therefore, be generated through the census which
could fruitfully be used to assess the area specific and people-specific
requirements and in devising appropriate programmes to address
such requirements. (PIB Features)
*Information
officer, PIB. New Delhi
