The government claims that the number of poor has fallen by 5 crore. The planning commission data released on Monday says that the absolute number of poor fell from 40.7 crore in 2004-2005 to 35.5 crore people in 2009-1010. However, there is a catch — these figures are based on a poverty bar set lower than what the government had suggested to the supreme court as the ideal threshold. Now, if one lives in a city lives on more than Rs 28.65 a day he/she can no longer be classified as poor even as the plan panel had asked this bar to be set at Rs 32. Similarly, to be counted as rural poor one has to fit hi life within a cap of Rs 22.43 a day.

This extremely paupered imagination of poverty has effectively allowed the government to unfairly push these five crore people (possibly more) out of welfare entitlements. A host of centrally sponsored social security schemes leave the 'above-poverty line' folk out of their ambit. The centre has clearly shrugged off its responsibility to tehpoor and instead, gone with a window-dressing of the real situation. Milking the figures for the maximum political gains, those in the government have hailed the flagship rural employment guarantee scheme as a reason for the 'fall' in the number of the poor. However, the truth remains that the agriculture sector remains neglected while the tardy pace of rural health is still a concern. Universal access toi healthcare has declined.