[Reader-list] Highlights of PM’s Independence Day speech - 198

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Kshamendra

I again apologize, because I am not exactly sure about this information as
to whether they earn less than Rs. 20 a day or they spend less than Rs. 20 a
day. I remember having read the latter, but this report looks at the former,
and states that 77% of Indians get less than Rs. 20 per day(or Rs. 600 per
month). Going by that data, the latter of course would be proven in any case
(almost that is).

Regards

Rakesh

Link:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=5186260a-33b0-4825-ba7c-e7074a6fffa6&&Headline=A+third+of+Indians+live+on+Rs+20+a+day%2C+says+survey

Article:

What can Rs 20 possibly fetch? For 836 million Indians, Rs 20 per day, or Rs
600 a month, buys them their daily sustenance.

Technically, a large chunk of these 836 million Indians — 77 per cent of the
country’s population — are above the poverty line at Rs 12  per day.

But the reality is that they remain dismally poor, comprising largely of
STs, SCs, OBCs and Muslims, according to the report on *Conditions of Work
and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector*. This is the the
first authoritative study on the state of informal or unorganised employment
in India, compiled by the National Commission for Enterprises in the
Unorganised Sector (NCEUS), a government-affiliated body. If people do not
earn, how will they spend or save, says Dr Arjun Sengupta

The report is based on government data for the period between 1993-94 and
2004-05.

A staggering 394.9 million workers, or 86 per cent of India’s working
population, toil in the unorganised sector, which means they work without a
social security cover.

Nearly 80 per cent of these workers are among those who live on less than Rs
20 per day.

NCEUS chairman Dr Arjun Sengupta said: “These are the discriminated,
disadvantaged and downtrodden. People who live on Rs 20 or less per day are
the real poor and vulnerable.”

Sengupta told *HT* that Rs 20, which signifies consumption pattern, is an
indicator of the person’s income and saving. “If people do not earn, how
will they spend or save?” he added.

Agriculture, the report found, was a fertile ground for poverty, especially
for small and marginal farmers, 84 per cent of whom spent more than they
earned and were often caught in debt traps.