My response to the editorial"Teach people to Fish" appeared in ET dated 22/09/11.
The link is here
Your editorial Teach people to Fish is thought Provoking and commendable.The planning Commission's affidavit to Supreme Court that any one with a monthly expenditure of Rs 965 in urban area and Rs 781 in rural area would be deemed not poor is an indication that the members of Planning Commission are totally unaware of the ground realities as to how much Rs 965 and Rs 781 can fetch in the market taking into consideration the fall in the value of Rs and rise in the value of products. In urban areas,water costs Rs 15 a bottle,milk costs Rs25-30 a litre, fuel costs Rs 375 a cylinder and the lists go on. Rs 965 a month at best can help a person to live for 15 days and starve for the next 15 days.This sort of definition of poverty level only reflects the poor understanding of the market realities and the actual living conditions of the masses.This lack of knowledge reflects poorly in all policy formulation.The number and conditions of people below poverty level have not changed for past six decades after independence. It is time to acknowledge the naked truth that Rs 32 a day can fetch nothing in the present day inflationary situation and this awakening is needed among the policy makers that economic policies so far pursued have miserably failed and widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The fact that dividend earned in crores of Rs is tax free,wage of Rs 32 earned through hard physical labour is above poverty level is a paradox and the Govt is answerable for that.
Dr.T.V.Gopalakrishnan
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