EDITORIAL
FOREIGN POLICY
A noteworthy feature of
the Indian situation today is not that the Vajpayee
Government is set to put up a fight against its
adversaries but that after many years India's foreign
policy is again in full play. New Delhi has been able to
renew its contacts with the outside world, including
Saudi Arabia and Iran, once again, ending in process its
self-imposed isolation from the international mainstream.
This development has come about because of a combination
of many factors, the most important of which appears to
be the country's adoption of the free market and
implementation of globalisation strategies. This is
perhaps not the best instrument to demonstrate and assert
India's role and position in international affairs, but
it is true that it is because of the change in India's
economic policies that its foreign policy is also going
places. There is thus an assertion of the nexus between
the country's foreign and domestic policies. The eighties
and the first half of nineties saw Indian Prime Ministers
travelling abroad extensively. Both Rajiv Gandhi, and PV
Narasimha Rao eras saw the initiation of what can
appropriately be described as a "get closer to the
world" strategy in foreign policy. Under Rajiv
Gandhi, India went as close to Southern Africa as it
could. Under Narasimha Rao, New Delhi initiated the
"Look East", "Look North Africa" and
"Look West Asia" policies. However, after the
exit of the Congress regimes from the country's power
centre, India shrank within itself, and no fresh
initiatives and no innovations in foreign policy were
attempts. The all-too-brief tenures of VP Singh, Chandra
Shekhar, HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral offered no promise
of any forward movement in India's position as a player
in the international arena. Gujral began some
initiatives, but before he could concretise them into
policy options, his tenure ended. Had he continued, he
might have breathed new life into foreign policy.
Suddenly, things started looking up for South Block when
the Vajpayee Government took the world by surprise by
exercising its nuclear options and conducting tests. Even
for wrong reasons, the spotlight of international
attention turned on India. From May 1998 onwards, India
has been making waves in the international arena. How did
the anger against India seen in May 1998 and subsequently
melt away so fast and how India regained respectability
in the international arena? The Clinton visit perhaps put
the stamp of final approval of India as a responsible
nuclear weapon State. Had the so-called international
community — an euphemism for the United States-led
Western Alliance — continued to think that India
deserved to remain an outcast, there may have been no
change in attitudes, and no Clinton visit either. Rightly
or wrongly, there seems to be a belief in the world that
American Presidents do not travel to countries which
break the boundaries of the international system presided
over by the US. So, if Clinton visited India, it meant
that all Indian sins of omission and commission deserved
to be overlooked. The fact that both the guest and the
host had a wonderful time during the five-day visit
actually enhanced India's prestige and standing in the
eyes of the world. After the Clinton visit, the gateway
to India seemed to have re-opened after a prolonged
closure. One after another, foreign dignitaries descended
on India. Delhi's South Block has been kept busy planning
the itineraries and agendas for successive visits from
Ministers or senior officials from major West European
countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Italy and
so on. It is all to the good that the South Block is
again active and immersed in work. Hard work in the
Ministry of External Affairs (MAE) symbolises the
expansion and broadening of India's role and functioning
in the international relations. And at a time when Muslim
Pakistan has intensified propaganda against
‘Hindu’ India, New Delhi has registered much
progress while befriending major Muslim countries.
AIDS & INDIA
Mind-boggling figure: 3.86
million HIV infected people in India. And the infection
is percolating from high-risk groups to the general
population. Thus, all the more reason for the Union
Health Ministry to urge the world community to start a
global drug facility. Such a facility can finance
anti-retroviral drugs in India. And the suggested
facility is modelled on the one for combating TB and
leprosy. The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has
favoured sending a delegation which will carry the
proposal to a special session of the UN General Assembly
on AIDS in New York in June. It is the first time United
Nations is holding a special session on the killer
disease. In March, at the preparatory commission meeting,
the proposal for a global drug facility was discussed.
The facility will, in other words, be a pool to which
drug companies and other donors can contribute for
distribution to developing countries. The proposal was
supported by China, South Africa and other developing
nations. The proposal was also discussed at a recent
conference of Health Ministers of the non-aligned
movement (NAM). The developing countries seem to have
reckoned that introduction of the highly-priced
anti-retroviral drugs holds moral dilemma for them. The
drugs offer a better quality of life for the infected.
But, at the same time, it does not, despite the huge
costs, provide a cure. Another problem going to be thrown
up: Dispensing the drugs through the public health system
will eat into the limited resources of the developing
countries. Should the resources be spent on the infected
or on intervention programmes which can control the
spread of infection in the population? This question has
engaged the attention of almost all developing countries.
According to the HIV Sentinel Surveillance Round 2000
report, the number of infected people rose by 16,000 in
1999-2000. And the data has confirmed that the infection
is percolating from high-risk groups like sex workers,
truckers and drug injectors to the general population.
This has strengthened the resolve of the National AIDS
Control Organisation (NACO) to put money into prevention
programmes rather than on drugs. NACO will spend 80 per
cent of its budget allocation of Rs 210 crores on
prevention programmes and 20 per cent on providing care
and support to the infected. The anti-retroviral drugs,
NACO's project director, JVR Prasada Rao has said, have
to come as an additional resource from a global facility.
To give these medicines to 10 per cent of the infected
population will cost NACO three times what it presently
spends on prevention and care as well as support
programmes. In India, as many as 45 districts have been
identified as having the highest prevalence of HIV. And
according to one estimate, 30 per cent of infected
pregnant women give birth to HIV-positive babies.
|
Taliban
: US Gift to the World
By Zafar
Alam Khan
The
fanatically persued destruction of
age-old heritage by the Talibans is just
one sign of their barbarism they have
crossed all the limits.
Human
rights groups say the Taliban have forced
the last few Hindu and Sikh residents to
wear bits of yellow cloth and to paint
their roof tops yellow to remind them of
their inferior status. It took half a
decade for Talibanisation to come to mean
a brutual cultural medievalism. The
denial of education, health care and
feedom to women is wellknown. Amputating
the limbs of thieves, crushing
homosexuals under stones and summary
executions today barely rate a mention.
The sad
state of today's Afghanistan shows us
what happened when politicians either
misuse religion or pretend that
terrorists are freedom fighters.
Taliban
are the logical consequence of Ronald
Reagon's Afghanistan Policy.
Osama-Bin-Laden is the monster created by
American Policy makers. The barbaric rise
of Taliban is the consequence of super
power rivalry in the Eighties. The
foolish decision of Russian army to enter
Afghan istan in 1979-80 was taken as a
chance by the US to take the situation to
grow into Soviet Unions version of the
Vietnam war.
The
Taliban : They are the Islamic
Militia of Afghanistan, students (Talib)
of madrasas who became extremists. Today,
they've captured more than two-thirds of
Afghanistan, which had lost more than 1.5
million people and was in a state of
virtual disintegration after almost 12
years of a proxy war between the Soviet
Union and the US-backed Mujahideen. Sunni
Muslims, the Taliban's declared aims are
to restore peace, disarm the population
and enforce Sharia law. But they have no
manifesto or scholarly analysis of
Islamic or Afghan history. They pride
themselves on being the pariahs of the
world, rejecting accommodation with
Muslim moderation and the West.
How
They Began : In September 1994, the
Taliban appeared on the Afghan political
scene, rescuing a Pakistan convey of 30
trucks heading for Central Asia. It was a
master-stroke of Pakistan Interior
Minister Naseerullah Babar who engineered
it for geo-political reason. In April
1995, their leader Mulla Muhamjmad Omar
was declared the Amir-ur-Momineen (leader
of all the Muslims). A former guerilla
commander who fought against occupying
Soviet forces, he returned home in
disgust to his madrassa at the terror
mujahideen were inflicting on
Afghanistan.
Their
Progress : By September 1995, the
Taliban had killed and hanged former
Afghan President Najibullah along with
his brother, Shahpur Ahmadzai. A month
later, they forced people to pray five
times a day in Kabul and passed a law
saying women should not work. Deputy
Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Adbul
Ghafoorzai denounced them at the UN. By
September 26 next year, the whole of
Kabul was under their control.
How Do
They Govern ? : Through the Supreme
Shura which is based in Kandahar, a city
Omar has apparently left only once. It is
dominated by Omar's friends, mostly
Durrani Pashtuns, who have come to be
known as the Kandaharis. With their
excessive secrecy and purging of Kabul's
bureaucracy, their governance defies
description. There has been no movement
towards a representative government and
the growing indiscipline caused by
economic woes has led to several acts of
looting and robbing by Taliban soldier.
What's
The Future " : Bleak. In 1998,
the number of Afghan families headed by a
widow had reached 98,000, the number of
families headed by a disabled person was
63,000 and 45,000 people were treated for
war wounds that year alone. The social
divisions are multiple and the economy a
black hole.
US decided
to tie down the Russian down in
Afghanistan by financing, arming and
organising so called resistance
organisations using Pakistan as a staging
point the then military ruler of Pakistan
General Zia-ul-Haq was delighted by the
development. Not only his regime have
access to American arms and funds, but
also was the undivided attention of white
house.
Over the
next decade the US pored billions into
Afghan through Pakistani funnel. As there
were no ideological issues involved, the
resistance was organised on religious
lines : Mujahideen's (soldiers of Islam)
fighting their 'Jehad' (Holy war) against
the Godless Russian Communists. In the
short term the strategy worked. The
Afghan war sapped the Soviet Union of
money and morals. Ultimately, the Russian
withdrew in disgrace. And cost of war
played a major role in the collapse of
Soviet Union. But in the long run, this
region and finally bounced back on US.
Every single party involved in the battle
paid a heavy price. The Afghan people
naturally suffered the most. Ever since
the Russians left they have gone from one
unstable regime to the other ending up
with the barbaric Taliban drawn from the
ranks of Mujahideens trained in Pakistan
under the auspices of US.
Pakistan
also paid a heavy price. The easy
availability of arms and trained
assassins destroyed law & order in
most parts of the country. The Islamic
forces developed by Zia and Reagon to
fight the Russians unbalanced the secular
order in Pakistan.
Once the
Americans moved in on 1988-89 Pakistan
had to find something to do with the
terrorists trained for the Afghan
operations. And they find a solution in
Kashmir, it is not mere a coincidence
that the Kashmir militancy began just as
the war against Russian was ending in
Afghanistan. Nor its accidential that the
so called Kashmiri militants frame their
opposition to India in the language used
in the Afghanistan: Jehad, Mujahideen
etc.
The US has
also lost out the people of Afghanistan
recognised that their country was no more
than a stage for the US war against
Russia and hate the US for it. This
hatred is epitomised by the very
Mujahideen's the American created out of
nothing.
Sometimes
the Mullah tell them to destroy the
Buddha statue and persecute non-Muslims.
But more often than not, they tell them
to attack that den of sin and unIslamic
practices the United States.
Osama-bin-Laden,
for example was a rich Saudi youth who
got sucked into the Afghan conflict by
the American inspired rhetoric of a
Jehad. Once he had seen off the Russians
he ran out of things to do. He now spends
his time sending terrorists to Kashmir
and blowing up American Embassies.
The
Americans now tell the world that these
people are dangerous they frown at the
term Mujahideen and say that Jehad is a
global menace. They declared that the
very acts they once trained the
Mujahideens to do in Afghanistan. Blowing
up government buildings, eliminating
inconvenient politicians etc. Are an
affron to the civilisation. They appeared
to see no irony in this but the bigger
loser has been the image of Islam.
Taliban's commandments
A
sample of some of the Taliban decrees
after the capture of Kabul in 1996:
Women
you should not step outside your
residence. If you go outside the house
you should not be like women who used to
go with fashionable cloths wearing much
cosmetics and appearing in front of every
men before the coming of Islam.
Female
patients should go to female physicians,
in case a male physician is needed, the
female patient should be accompanied by
her close relative. During examination,
the female patients and male physician
both should be dressed with Islamic hijab
(veil). Male physicians should not touch
or see the other parts of female patients
except for the affected part.
To
prevent beard shaving and its cutting.
After one and a half months if anyone
observed who has shaved and/or cut his
beard, they should be arrested and
imprisoned until their beard gets bushy.
To
prevent keeping pigeons and playing with
birds. Within ten days this habbit/hobby
should stop. After ten days this should
be monitored and the pigeons and any
other birds should be killed.
To
prevent kite flying. The kite shops in
the city should be abolished.
To
prevent idolatory. In vehicles, shops,
hotels, room and any other place
pictures/portraits should be abolished.
The monitors should tear up all pictures
in the above places.
To
prevent the British and American
hairstyle. People with long hair should
be arrested and taken to the Religious
Police department to shave their hair.
The criminal has to pay the barber.
To
prevent sewing ladies cloth and taking
female body measures by tailor. If women
or fashion magazine are seen in the shop
the tailor should be imprisoned.
(Excerpts
from Taliban : Islam, Oil and New Great
Game in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid :
Taken from a translation handed to
Western agencies to implement. The
grammar and spellings are reproduced here
as they appeared in the original)
Vinayak
Syndicate
|
 |
A
Latin American jet looks for Indian
buyers
By D K
Arora
A leader
in the aviation industry of Latin
America, Embraer, of
Brazil has begun eyeing the vast aircraft
market in India. For a start, it has
begun marketing its state-of-the-art
executive jet "Legacy" and
other variants of the EMB-145 family. The
"Legacy", with a capacity of 8
to 18 seats, has a much bigger cabin
volume compared to similar aircraft in
the same range.
The
company also has a wide range of jets in
its ERJ series, with 30 to 50 seats, and
is currently developing new products to
fly 70 to 108 passengers. It has been
holding talks with the private carriers,
Jet and Sahara, for the sale of its
aircraft. The "Legacy" is a
corporate variant of the 37-seat ERJ 135
regional jet. It will be available in
thre version: for the transporation of
executives, for corporate use and for
transportation of authorities.
"We
think the "Legacy" business jet
will redefine the category," says
Sam Hill, Vice Chairman of Embraer
Aircraft Corp and leader of the new
corporate jet division. "With a
range of 3,200 nm and a cost of around
US$ 19 million the aircraft is comparable
to the Continental, Horizon, and Galaxy,
but with 1,410 cubic feet of space, it is
expected to have at least 60 per cent
large cabin volume. We believe that extra
room at the same price makes the Legacy
and attractive alternative to small er
jets." Besides, it costs one and
half times less than the other aircraft
in the category.
During the
official launch ceremony of this model at
Farnborough air show in England last
year, the first contract - for an amount
of approximately US$ 1 billion - was
announced, signed with Swift Aviation of
the U.S., which acquired 50 of those
aircraft (25 firms orders and 25
options). In December 2000. Embraer ranks
among the four largest commercial
aircraft manufacturers in the world with
a well-established line of regional
airliners, ranging from the 30-seat
EMB-120 turboprop to its successful
jetlinter family.
In
September 1999 Embraer launched the
44-seat ERJ 140. First flights of the ERJ
140 took place on June 27,2000 and the
aircraft wil be available for the market
in the second quarter of 2001 after
certification by Brazilian and American
authorities.
Offering a
2,000 nm range - a significant increase
over other commercial ERJ 145 versions -
the ERJ 145 XR (Extra Long RAnge)
provides hot and high operation
capabilities and superior single engine
ceiling. Equipped with winglets that give
measurably reduced specific fuel
consumption, the ERJ 145XR introduces
significant improvements on design weight
characteristics of the basic airframe and
offers increased capacity fuel calls.
Continuing
to invest on new products and aiming at
customer needs as ever, Embraer has
launched and is currently developing a
new segment of its regional jet family -
ERJ 170, ERJ 190-100 and ERJ 190-200,
seating respectively 70,98 and 108
passengers. The rollout of the new plane
will occur in the fourth quarter of 2001.
Embraer expects to deliver the first ERJ
170 by the second half of 2002, just 38
months after the programme go ahead. The
first deliveries of the ERJ 190-200 are
scheduled for July 2004. In December,
Embraer's portfollo of ERJ 170 and ERJ
190 regional jet orders totalled 325, of
which 120 were firm orders and 205 were
purchase options. The new family segment
of regional jetliners will ensure
continuation of the company's line of
commercial products into the next century
and will strengthen Embraer's current 45
per cent share of the world's regional
jet market.
Last
month, Embraer registered another
milestone in its history when it
delivered its 400th aircraft. During a
special ceremony held at the company's
headquarter in Sao Jose dos Campos,
Brazil, Crossair took delivery of the
400th regional jetliner manufactured by
Embraer. Registered HB-JAL, the aircraft
is the 12th regional jet delivered to the
Swiss carrier, which has placed 25 firm
orders for the ERJ 145 and 15 additional
options. By the end of this year
Crossair's fleet will have to total of 18
ERJ 145s.
The ERJ
145 entered the market in December 1996.
Since then, production rate has
consistently been increased, rising from
32 aircraft in 1997 to 160 aircraft in
2000. Exactly two years were required to
reach the 100th delivery, but only
another year for the handing over of the
200th. The interval between the 300th and
400th was reduced to seven months.
Currently registering a
16-aircraft/month-production rate,
Embraer's plans are to raise that figure
by year-end.
Embraer is
headquartered in Sao Jose dos Campos,
state of Sao Paulo, with offices in
Australia, China, France, Singapore and
United States, and total workforce of up
the 11.00. Embraer (Empresa Brasileira de
Aeronautica S.A.) is Brazil's largest
exporter and has confirmed sales of US$
11.4 billion and US$ 12.6 billion in
sales options, as a December 2000.
Embraer has over 31 years of experience
in designing, developing, manufacturing,
selling and providing after sales support
to aircraft aimed for the world airline
and defense markets.
Embraer
posted the best economic financial
performance in its history in 2000.
The
Company reported gross revenues of R$
5,230.7 million, representing an increase
of 56.6 per cent in relation to the R$
3,378.7 million recorded in 1999. Net
earnings were R$ 645.2 million, 58.6 per
cent higher than the R$ 412.1 million
obtained the previous year, crowing 14
consecutive quarter of growing profits.
—CNF
|
|
A
new set-up for better safety standards
By D K Arora
The International
Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) plans to
establish an International Financial for Aviation
Safety (IFFAS) to enhance safety standards
globally, according to Mr R C Costa Pereira,
secretary general of the Organisation.
The IFFAS would
make available resources to developing and least
developed countries for being used for training
of personnel, installation of safety-related
reliable and technologically advanced
navigational aids and development of maintenance
facilities in the field of airworthiness. The
beneficiaries would not be allowed to use these
funds for aircraft procurement or construction of
airports, he added.
ICAO saw the
necessity to promote IFFAS, because major
international financial institutions had
conventionally laid emphasis on social sectors
such as poverty alleviation, health, water and
sanitation. Giving an estimate of the funding
required, he said that as per the current
assessment based on audit reports US $50 million
was required to correct safety-related
deficiencies in developing countries which made
minimum contribution to ICAO.
Mr Pereira is a
former General of the Brazilian Air Force with
8000 flying hours to his credit and has also
earlier been chairman of the National Civil
Aviation Authority of Brazil and president of the
Latin American Civil Aviation Commission.
ICAO, a
specialised agency of the United Nations,
established in 1944, is responsible for framing
regulations for safety, security and economic air
transportation throughout the world. In the 56
years since its inception, it has promulgated 18
regulations, called annexes, dealing with
aircraft operations, airwothiness, air
meteorology, air traffic services, aviation
security, accident investigation and cargo of
dangerous goods. The assembly of ICAO, comprising
all member states, introduced universal mandatory
safety oversight audit programme, which empowered
it to conduct safety audit Initially, audit
covers the area of licensing, aircraft operation
and airwothiness. As a sequel to audit, defects
and deficiencies have been identified and a
comprehensive approach to rectify defects for
improved safety in aviation is presently under
consideration by ICAO.
To achieve higher
standards in global aviation safety, an
improvement in safety-related aviation
infrastructure is an imperative for all
countries, including those identified by the
United Nations as the least developed ones which
may not have the requisite funds.
ICAO's prime
objective is to ensure that aviation safety
receives the attention it deserves, irrespective
of a country's economic strength or priority it
wishes to accord to civil aviation. While
countries which have adequate funds and possess
the necessary expertise can easily overcome the
drawbacks identified in the audit reports, ICAO
is concerned about States which do not have the
financial resources to do so.
While an easier
option is to bypass countries with poor civil
aviation infrastructure, it would mean shrinkage
of air routes and destinations. The other and
more constructure options is to find ways and
means to overcome infrastructural deficiencies in
aviation, wherever it existed. It is for this
reason that ICAO is currently engaged in setting
up of an IFFAS.
India should take
up a leadership role in rallying the support of
the other developing countries for the
establishment of the proposed IFFAS. The assembly
of ICAO is expected to meet in September this
year to discuss and endorse proposed IFFAS. The
corpus for the proposed fund is likely to be
collected by levying a fee of $ 1 (one) on every
fare paying international passengers.
ICAO can collect $
800 million from 800 million international
airtickets sold every year. Out of this, $ 50
million is required immediately to correct
safety-related deficiencies in developing
countries that make minimum contribution to the
ICAO, IFFAS is expected to be set up over the
next two years.
During his recent
visit to India, Mr Pereira had an exchange of
views with the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Sharad
Yadav, the Minister of State for Civil Aviation,
Prof Chaman Lal Gupta, the Civil Aviation
Secretary, Mr A H Jung, and officials of Air
India, Indian Airlines, the DGCA and the Airports
Authority of India.
He also
highlighted the enormous technical expertise that
India had in the filed of civil aviation. ICAO
had been drawing upon India's technical expertise
from time to time in the execution of technical
cooperation projects undertaken in developing
countries.- CNF
|
Measuring
Poverty
By Dipta Sen
Recently
Government came out with a statement that poverty
has gone down and currently stands at below 25
per cent. In other words, less than a quarter of
Indians are going to bed hungry. Other experts
and researchers differ. They claim that if
anything, poverty is only increasing. What is
going on? Why do experts arrive at varying
conclusions about the trends in poverty?
One reason may be,
that different data sets are used. Obviously,
data about each and every poor, howsoever
defined, cannot be collected. So data collectors
determine a representatives sample and draw
conclusions about the poor. Since sampling
techniques and methods may differ, experts may
therefore arrive at different conclusions.
Similarly if information is not elicited from
individuals in the sample uniformly by data
collectors, results may show variations. In fact,
for the Government, data is collected by the
National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). Some
experts have raised questions about the data
collection methods of the SSO, as also the
quality and reliability of the data.
Among developing
countries, India has had, a commendable tradition
of data collection and analysis, in part because
of the presence of people like Prasanta
Mahalanobis. Over several decades now, India has
had a long line of studies attempting a profile
of poverty and its trend. In early 1960s, a
committee in the Perspective Planning Division
(concerned with planning over long time periods,
of 15-20 years) of the Planning Commission, under
the chairmanship of Shri Pitamber Pant, attempted
to measure the living standards of the bottom
10.21 per cent of the population, and to see how
long it would take to raise their minimum living
standard to a certain level. In the wake of the
Green Revolution, there were several studies in
the early seventies, notably by Ojha, Bardhan,
Dandekar and Rath, Dharm Narain, and Minhas,
among others, that tried to determine the trends
in poverty, particularly rural overty. In 1971,
Mrs Gandhi adopted the slogan of "garibi
hatao", with happy results for her in the
subsequent elections. By the late seventies,
there were in place several employment generation
and poverty alleviation programmes.
But how is poverty
defined and conceptualised in all these studies
that seek to measure it? What is its relationship
with basic needs? With inequality? Whenever there
have been attempts to define poverty and to talk
about its meaning, such exercises have been
criticised as being too pedantic and nitpicking.
After all, one only needs to look around onself
to find poverty and deprivation. However the fact
remains that such exercises are important to see
if poverty is rising or falling over time, or to
see if there are any variations across the
states, and certainly to determine who the
potential beneficiaries of any anti poverty
programmes are.
A crucial point on
thinking about poverty is whether to measure
poverty in terms of absolute deprivation or in
terms of relative deprivation. Those who propose
the relative point of view say that the average
standard of living does not stay fixed over time
in any society. Hence, not only should poverty be
seen as shortfall from the average standard of
living in society, but that this average standard
of living itself changes over time. The problem
with this approach however, is that if poverty is
measured only looking at the bottom end of the
income distribution without any concept of a
poverty cut-off line, then by definition, there
will always be some amount of poverty, and
anti-poverty measures will always be seen as
unsuccessful!
For some the
concept of poverty has to be defined in terms of
absolute deprivation. According to them there can
be some cut-off level of deprivation below which,
the people can be termed as poor. This cut-off
level of deprivation, usually taken to be a
specified income level, can be called the
‘poverty line’. Now, the question is,
how is this line to be determined? Some people
have claimed that since poverty is supposed to
depict absolute deprivation, it should be set at
that level of living below which it is impossible
to survive; it should be the lowest theoretical
level of living. The drawback however, with this
view is that if this method of determining the
poverty line is used, the number of people below
the poverty line would always be zero, becuase by
this definition, if a person is alive, she or he
is necessarily above the poverty line.
Given that one has
to devise a poverty-line which takes as cut-off
income a level higher than that required to
barely stay alive, it is clear that there can be
inequality of incomes even among the poor.
Anti-poverty measures should ideally focus first
on the poorest of the poor, and not try to get
easy success by living those just below the
poverty line above that line. Gandhiji also
stressed this through his concept of Antyodaya.
Hence, a poverty line should reflect not only a
headcount ratio, but also the gap of a poor
persons's income and the official poverty line.
Quite clearly therefore, absolute or relative
measures of income are not the ideal answers to
measure poverty.
Fixing of the
poverty line, in India and in many other
countries, is also determined on the advice of
nutritionists regarding the average level of
calories required by a person to be in good
health and to carry out normal activities. This
may vary between rural and urban areas but is
kept at around the minimum thus required. Then it
is seen as to what kind of food items provide
this level of calories. The prices of these food
items are then obtained and finally the income
required to be able to afford these food items is
determined. This then forms the poverty line. But
there is some controversy here as well. Some
people have argued that in the determination of
this poverty line, the focus should not be
limited to food items alone.
There are other
basic necessities like clothing, housing etc. and
that these too must be considered in the
determination of the poverty line. In response
one can state that food is basic of all
necessities and hence the focus should be on
food. There has gone on among nutritionists
themselves a raging debate about the necessary
level of calories. Some nutritionists argue that
the level varies from person to person and also
for the same person over a period of time.
Moreover, some nutritionists have argued that
those who are unable to get adequate levels of
nutrition are able to somehow adapt to low levels
permanently, and hence the concept of required
level of calories should be approached with
caution.
If we add to the
above, the issue of price indices of food items,
the issue of appropriate incomes, and issue of
variation in prices from place to place and over
time, we can see that measure of poverty or
determination of the level of poverty line is not
a simple matter, rather a complex one. —CNF
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