One meal will push you out of BPL

CHENNAI: Venting their ire over the Planning Commission’s new spending limit of Rs 32 a day per capita to re-draw the definition of people living the Below Poverty Line, Chennaiites from the economically weaker sections termed the new amount as grossly low, as they would spend more than that for one square meal.Take the case of Mangayarkarasi, a homemaker.Her husband, the sole breadwinner of the family, works as a watchman in a retail chain near Egmore earning Rs 7,000.Spending within her means for her family of four is a stretch, she says.Housing alone costs Rs 3,000, not to include water and electricity charges.Even if she completely utilised the quota of rations the government is obliged to provide in ration shops, she spends Rs 2,000 on buying other essentials like milk, salt and spices, she says.“What we buy in retail stores is the bare minimum outside what we get in ration shops.Only rice is free in the ration shops, but even that cannot be used for both meals.We buy good rice from a local store at Rs 30 a kg for our lunch requirement,” she explains.Add to this the expense she incurs to buy vegetables, at Rs 600 a month these days.“Apart from this, we have to spend on education of children, travel and pay other bills also,” she says.“When the government increases the price of fuel often, thereby increasing the cost of living, how can the spending limit for BPL members be so meagre,” asks an auto driver, Sai.The National Sample Survey Organisation’s record of consumption in 2004-05 reveals that urban Indians spend 42 per cent of their income on food.As per the Planning Commission's new guideline, a person spending more than Rs 405 on food per month would not be classified as BPL.“But the monthly amount spent on food even for a bachelor without family commitments is about Rs 1,000 at two meals a day,” rues Gopal of Royapettah.Procuring just one kg of the essential commodities sold in ration shops, like palm oil (1 litre), urad dal, toor dal, sugar, wheat flour and wheat, would cost Rs 130, according to an official at a fair price shop in T Nagar.But these commodities will not suffice for a month even for a couple.Other essentials like milk (at least Rs 600 — a litre daily), and vegetables (from Rs 200 per month) and spices will also have to be bought outside.These will cost more than Rs 1,000 per capita,” explained Rajesh, who works as a driver in the city.