Patna, March 22: The contentious poverty data from the Planning Commission has a message for chief minister Nitish Kumar: Bihar may have recorded a striking rate of growth but much more needs to be done to improve the plight of the have-nots.

Latest data should have a sobering effect on the state government that has spared no expense to celebrate 100 years of being a separate administrative entity. The figures show that the number of poor has dipped marginally by less than one percentage point — from 54.4 per cent to 53.5 per cent — between 2004-05 and 2009-10, which covers the first term of the NDA government in Bihar.

Nitish today used the Bihar Divas celebrations, which got off to a spectacular start at Gandhi Maidan, to attack the Centre for “neglecting” the state and reiterated his demand for special category status, revision of the central coal policy and funding of the 10-year agriculture roadmap that promises to curb poverty in the state and usher in a rainbow revolution.

Poverty in urban areas of Bihar came down by a shade over four percentage points — from 43.7 per cent to 39.4 per cent — but that in rural areas remains much the same — 55.3 per cent in 2009-10 against 55.7 per cent in 2004-05.

The data is drawn up on the basis of a controversial new measure suggested by the Tendulkar committee. But since the same yardstick has been used to measure all states, the numbers can be used to compare the performance of different states.

In this, the Bihar picture looks grim, especially when weighed against other eastern states such as Odisha, Tripura, Sikkim, Bengal and fast-growing ones like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

All the other states have reduced poverty by 9.7 to 22.6 percentage points in five years, compared with Bihar’s 0.9 points. Uttar Pradesh, the state most often compared with Bihar, has seen a dip of about 3 percentage points, while Assam and Meghalaya have reported a rise in poverty.

Economists offer a slew of reasons for the poverty worry.

“The growth in urban Bihar has been construction-driven. This is not to say that there has been no construction in the rural areas. A substantive improvement in rural areas can be brought only through a turnaround in agriculture,” said economist Saibal Gupta, the founder-director of Asian Development Research Institute.

Gupta pointed out that one reason for the marginal dip in poverty is that when the data for this report was being collected, Bihar was reeling from the double whammy of drought and floods for three consecutive years. He said the economy of the state has since stabilised with high growth rate and the numbers should change for the better in the coming years.

Patna University economics professor N.K. Choudhary blamed the numbers on the government. “It is a clear indication that agriculture, on which three-fourths of the population of the state depends on, has been neglected. The development is lopsided,” Choudhary said, pointing out that even the allotment made this time to agriculture — about Rs 1,200 crore — is inadequate.

The dismal performance in the rural sector brings to focus the large-scale irregularities in poverty eradication schemes.

In the ongoing Bihar Assembly session, legislators cutting across party lines have spoken in one voice on issues like rampant corruption in several welfare schemes — be it Indira Awas, MNREGA, mid-day meals or subsidised food grain for the poor. “Had the implementation of these schemes been better, the decline in the poverty level would have been sharper,” said an economist who did not wish to be named.

It’s not that the government is unaware of this. Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh recently quoted chief minister Nitish Kumar as saying that panchayat functionaries were more interested in buying SUVs than using MNREGA funds.

Bihar rural development minister Nitish Mishra has declared that he would prefer not to spend money than giving it away for public loot.

The recent arrest of block level officials engaged in irregularities in Indira Awas, MNREGA and other poverty eradication schemes is an indicator of funds being siphoned off. “The panchayat system is just another layer of corruption,” remarked an MLA.

“The claim that migration has dipped during Nitish rule is questionable. In poverty-stricken districts such as Kishanganj, Khagaria, Madhubani and Darbhanga, there still is a huge population that keeps migrating to Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai for livelihood. If there had been development, why would they still have to go outside the state?” said leader of the Opposition Abdul Bari Siddiqui.

The growth is construction, communication and hotel sectors in the last financial year has been high at 19.61 per cent, 27.23 per cent and 20.22 per cent respectively.

Economists said corruption in poverty eradication programmes has a lot to do with the unprecedented rise in real estate prices in Patna. The cost of flats in Patna is more than Delhi. According to estimates, around Rs 36,000 crore has been pumped into the construction business during the last six years. “Talking about a Rs 24,000 crore or Rs 28,000 plan size is fine. The question is does it reach the target population,” said economist Choudhary.

The government is now speaking about the agriculture roadmap, which seeks an investment of Rs 1.59 lakh crore in the next five years. Most economists point out that they still do not understand where the money would come from. “The bottom line is that you cannot have a glittering Patna with an impoverished rural population,” said an economist.

Are poverty goalposts moving?

Mihir Shah, a member of the Planning Commission, said no. The commission, he said, is using the same methodology it did when it last published poverty estimates in 2009, based on data from a nationwide survey in 2004-05. The poverty lines have been raised by nearly 50 per cent, since then: In urban areas, the poverty line increased from Rs 578.80 per capita per month to Rs 859.60; and in rural areas it went from Rs 446.70 to Rs 672.80.

The misunderstandings arise because in September 2011, the Planning Commission filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court that pegged the provisional poverty line for urban and rural areas at Rs 965 and Rs 781 per capita per month, respectively.

However, these figures were “back of the envelope calculations” and projected a poverty line for June 2011 based on the 2004-05 National Sample Survey data, according to Saumitra Chaudhuri, a member of the Planning Commission. In other words, the Rs 32 a day poverty line was a forecast based on old consumption patterns.

The figures released on Monday are based on 2009-10 NSS data, which include actual consumption by households measured by the costs of food, rent and clothing, rather than estimates.

So, only two official poverty lines exist for the period between 2004 and 2010 based on NSS surveys. The revised poverty line of Rs 29 a day for 2009-10 should be weighed against the line of Rs 19 a day in 2004-05 in urban areas.
New York Times News Service