The new poverty line formula of the Indian government is extremely surprising and ridiculous.

The new poverty line formula of the Government of India is extremely strange. Announcing this formula, Dr. Shamika Ravi, a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, has said that anyone who spends less than Rs 1410 in cities and Rs 960 in villages every month is poor. That is, the government is saying that if a person in cities is in a position to spend Rs 42 daily, then he will not be considered poor. Similarly, if someone in villages is spending Rs 32 daily, then he is poor, but if he spends Rs 33, then he will be considered above the poverty line. This formula belongs to the government, whose head often says that he has overcome poverty. Based on this formula, the government claims that now only four percent of the poor are left in India and in the last 11 years, about 30 percent of the people have been taken out of the poverty line. It is surprising that why did the government leave even 4 percent of the people below the poverty line? The expenditure limit should have been reduced by four to five rupees and everyone should have been brought out of the poverty line. This is a wonderful technology, with which crores of people sitting in environmentally friendly offices can be brought out of the poverty line.

The question is that when only four percent of the people are poor, then why are 60 percent of the people being given five kilos of free food grains every month?