“We have elevated 250 million people out of poverty in India and we have shown that sustainable development can be successful,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Summit of the Future organised by the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this year.
This claim has been backed by economists from The Brookings Institution, Surjit Bhalla, and Karan Bhasi, who cited consumption expenditure data for 2022-23 and said that extreme poverty has declined in the country.
B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, CEO, Niti Aayog reiterated the same, claiming that less than 5% of Indians live below the poverty line today.
At the same time, a World Bank report revealed that approximately 129 million Indians are living in extreme poverty in 2024 and more Indians are living below the poverty line in 2024 than in 1990 because of ‘population growth’.
However, Economist Utsa Patnaik is one of the rejectors of the government’s claims and statistics regarding poverty reduction. Here’s what she has revealed.
What Did Utsa Patnaik Say?
At a lecture on the topic ‘Agrarian Distress, Worker-Peasant Alliance and Resistance to Corporate and Imperialist Designs in India’ at HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi on November 6, 2024 economist Utsa Patnaik said that since the introduction of neo-liberal policies in the early 1990s, food and nutrition intake has declined in India’s rural population.
“It (data) was downloaded by some people before it was completely withdrawn. The nutritional intake data are not there. But from whatever there is, through using certain approximations, I estimate that more than 80 per cent of the rural population have slipped below 2,200 calories per day intake,” she said at a lecture series organised by P Sundarayya Memorial Trust, an Independent Organisation.
Patnaik questioned the credibility of the current nutrition data and claimed that the Central Government’s assertions on falling poverty are false. “That is what the data tell us. That is what the government’s own data from the annual economic surveys and from the National Sample Service tell us. And of course, all these claims of declining mass poverty are completely false,” she said.
The economist cross-examined the distribution of the government’s scheme during the COVID-19 pandemic – the distribution of 5 kilograms of foodgrains to 80 crore people. She said that India’s statistical system has been undermined and the success of these programs based on the data projected, is questionable.
“To what extent this distribution has actually reached the people, the much-doubted 80 crores of people for whom it was intended is something we still have to find out because the entire statistical system of the country has been very thoroughly undermined over the last few years. We simply cannot rely on the data anymore because the National Sample Survey data for the large sample of 2017-18 showed the situation to be so bad,” she has said.
Read More: UN Report Says India’s Hunger Problem Has Reduced, But Are They Eating Healthy?
What Else Did The Economist Claim?
Utsa Patnaik claims that there are “unfair terms” and inconsistencies in policies and terms of the agricultural agreements signed between India and other countries under the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She also said that developing nations such as India are under an “unrelenting attack” as they are ordered to be involved in foodgrain procurement and distribution.
“It’s dishonest because, number one, it said that if you give price support to farmers, and MSP is price support, then that is not permitted under WTO rules because it is trade distorting. If you give cash transfers to farmers, that is permitted,” she said.
“The food security of their (developing countries) populations has been under tremendous attack for the last 20 years. And the attack is ongoing,” Patnaik claimed.
She highlighted that India can produce all types of foodgrains these nations are producing and said, “Advanced industrial countries want to have an international division of labour in which they sell their surplus foodgrains to us (India) since they have only one cropping season and they lack the opportunity to diversify in terms of crops.”
Patnaik recommended the formation of a research team that looks into “intellectual dishonesty” and “expose these kinds of designs of the imperialists and also explain it to the ordinary people.”
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Sources: The Print, The Economic Times, Business Standard
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This post is tagged under: Utsa Patnaik, nutrition, calorie, food, WTO, India, economist, developing countries, research, agricultural agreements, trade, policy, World Bank, Central government, covid, pandemic, Summit of the Future, PM Narendra Modi, 79th United Nations General Assembly, The Brookings Institution, Surjit Bhalla, Karan Bhasi, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, CEO, think tank, Niti Aayog, BPL, rural, neoliberal, HKS Surjeet Bhawan, New Delhi, All India Kisan Sabha, CPI(M), Rajya Sabha, P Sundarayya Memorial Trust
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