The impact of the new economic policy on working class in India
The poverty lines for the year 1993-94 are Rs 229 and Rs 264
per capita per month for rural and urban areas respectively. However, Rs 228.9
and Rs 264.1 in 1993-94, no longer correspond to the expenditure norms
corresponding to 2400 k cal and 2100 k cal as per the definition of poverty
line. The price of consumption has been changed significantly. In food items
its cost is much higher than that of non-food items. Secondly, due to
penetration of urban businessmen or outsiders into the poor locals the price of
basic essential items has been increased much more.
Thirdly, because of the crises of availability of money the
rural poor either sell themselves partly or fully to their respective dominant
persons or sell their livelihood to them to migrate to other parts especially
into urban belts for sake of employment as labourers. Fourthly, the relative
prices of the basic goods have been increased more than proportionately. For
instance, the conditions of housing and transport in urban areas have been
deteriorated to the extent of forcing people to live away from their places of
work and to spend on transport. Similarly, the rural labour force has to
migrate away from their village in order to get work.
In India, poverty is measured only in terms of the calories
intake for survival. It does not include other ‘essential expenditures’ of
human beings, i.e., clothes, shelter, health and medicine. It doesn’t go to see
other ‘necessary expenditures’ of human beings, i.e., education, housing,
healthy food, etc. It does not include expenditures on “necessary of efficiency
of life”, i.e., recreational, sports, and other miscellaneous expenditure for
growing children. Marx was perhaps right when he said that in capitalist world
the human being would be equated with machine (Marx, 1844). He would be
provided with wages for survival as if the fuel was provided to machine for its
survival. Marx’s contention may not be fully true in democratic-industrial
nations where the quality of opportunity is granted and where there is much
concern about relative deprivation rather than the absolute deprivation, but in
India where there is mass poverty and inequality Marx’s viewpoint cannot be
ignored. Here in India a man is not even provided with ‘basic necessities of
life’ for his survival.
He cannot think of ‘necessary expenditures’ as his
capability is insufficient even to the extent of filling up ‘essential
expenditures’ for survival. It is pathetic to note that even though the
“essential expenditures” of the existence is not fully covered while measuring
the poverty line by the government, millions of people in India are under the
clutches of poverty line. According to Planning Commission, people under the
BPL were reduced from 25.49 percentage in 1987 to 18.96 per cent in 1993-94
(Government of India, 1995, Economic Survey, 1995-96: 169).
However, as per modified expert group methodology, the
Planning Commission in its Ninth Five-Year Plan states the figure of BPL as
38.9 per cent for 1987-88 and 36 per cent for 1993-94 (Government of India,
1999, Ninth Five-Year Plan: 29), Hence, in contrary to its previous claim of
reduction of poverty to 19 per cent in 1993- 94, the Planning Commission agreed
that the figure was in fact double the previous, that is, 36 per cent in
1993-94. The data indicates that despite non-inclusion of the all ‘essential’,
‘necessary’ and ‘efficiency’ expenditures more than 36 crore Indians are under
the BPL. Therefore, if such expenditures were included, perhaps more than 75
crore Indians would have been trapped under the poverty line.
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