Will changing the poverty line reduce poverty?
Will changing the poverty line reduce poverty?Economist Mohammad Shoaib ahmed said, 'The actual annual inflation rate is 12 percent, but it is reported to be 6 percentand every eight years the value of one rupee becomes zero. If you borrowed one rupee from me 10 to 12 years ago and you returned that one rupee to me today, it means that you did not return my money. If you returned two rupees, it means you returned my principal. If you returned three rupees, then I would say that you gave me a profit.'Mohammad Shoaib further said, "Today the government has set the poverty line at Rs 2000, but is this two thousand rupees really enough to live today? When the benchmark of poverty has been reduced, then the number of poor people will definitely decrease. If the poverty line is reduced from two thousand to 500 or 1000, then poverty will be completely eradicated from the country."What is the real reason for the huge decline in rural poverty?According to the sbi report, the poverty rate has been estimated by analyzing data of different levels of income. The main reason for the reduction in poverty in villages is the rapid increase in the income of the poorest people (0-5% category). This has also raised the poverty line, which was in the 5-10% category in 2022-23,has come to the 0-5% category in 2023-24. In simple words, the people who were earlier considered poor, now their income has increased, so they are no longer poor. Therefore, the poverty line has also changed.The effect of this is that people living in villages are now spending as much as people in cities. Earlier there was a lot of difference in the expenditure of cities and villages, but now this difference is decreasing. In 2004-05, people living in cities used to spend 88.2% more than the villagers. But in 2023-24 this difference has come down to 69.7%. The special thing is that in the states which were earlier consideredbackward, like bihar and Rajasthan, the difference between villages and cities has reduced the most.