“Come stay with us, live our lives just for one day and then decide how a person who spends more than `31 is no longer poor”.
40-year-old Gajodhar, who lives in a ‘jhuggi jhompdi’ (cluster colony) near Vasant Kunj, is a daily wager.
His day’s earning, he says, is not fixed, but it, for sure, is never more than `250. “What are they talking about? Do they have an idea how much a day’s meal for a family of 5 costs? I have to pay `1,500 as rent for the jhuggi. Minimum `20 per day for water. `50 monthly for my children’s school. Why don’t they (government) live with us and see how we survive,” he says. The Planning Commission, in its affidavit to the Supreme Court, upheld the Suresh Tendulkar Committee’s findings that an individual spending less than `31 in urban areas and `26 a day in rural areas was poor. There are apprehensions that whatever be the commission’s stand in court will become a policy.
Peeking from a lacerated curtain covering the entrance of their house made of mud, Gajodhar’s daughter says life is not easy for a poor to live.
“We don’t even get a wholesome meal. I don’t know why the government doesn’t understand our plight. Life is not easy in a jhuggi. Why would we stay here, if we were not poor,” Anju (20) said. The capping of poor households, who qualify for BPL cards for availing themselves of subsidised foodgrains by the Planning Commission, has forced states to identify only as many poor households as “permitted,” leading to arbitrariness in the selection, and the exclusion of several. The underlying issue has been the government’s desire to project a reduction in poverty line.
In a hot, humid day, the family sits outside the house talking, while Radha, Gajodhar’s daughter-in-law, combs her daughter’s hair.
The walls of the house had been painted blue long back. Now just a few patches are left. “Things were better earlier. The essential commodities weren’t as expensive. Some years back...I don’t remember how long it has been...we painted our house. Now we hardly have a day’s meal,” she says.