NITI Aayog to hold regional consultations on poverty debate

To broad-base the debate on poverty, NITI Aayog is planning to have regional consultation on the subject over the next six months in various cities of the country.

According to officials, the first such regional consultation will be held in Delhi for the northern region, followed similar programmes in central, southern, western and eastern parts of the country.

POINT OF DISCUSSION

• NITI Aayog Consultations to be held over the next six months
• Consultations to form consensus on vital issues related to poverty determination and elimination
• The Aayog already has a high-powered task force on poverty under vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya
• Task force was tipped to submit its report by August 2015, but was granted extension
• Task force might not recommend setting poverty numbers

The consultations would enable the Aayog to form a broad consensus on how should poverty be defined and what should be its parameters, apart from the contentious issue of who should be considered poor.

Some officials said a similar regional-level consultation was also being planned for taking states on board on the controversial topic of legalising land lease agreements.

Land being a state subject, any forward movement on the same has to be with the active consultation of state governments.

On the poverty debate, NITI Aayog has already constituted a high-powered task force headed by vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya.

Other members of the task force include NITI Aayog member Bibek Debroy and experts Rathin Roy, Surjit Bhalla and the government's chief statistician T C A Anant. Secretaries in the departments of rural development, housing, micro-small and medium enterprises and financial services are also members of the task force.

The task force was to submit its initial report by August 2015. However, it was granted an extension. As part of the mandate, states, too, had to constitute similar task force on poverty elimination.

The regional consultation is being planned by the same task force.

Officials had said sometime ago the task force might favour the need for a single poverty number for better understanding of resource allocation, but leave the task of determining that number open-ended.

According to the task force, the calculation of poverty could be done either by the Aayog itself or the National Statistical Commission, headed by economist Pronab Sen.

Official said the task force was also of the view that sustained economic growth was imperative to bring down poverty. Public intervention and the need for household-level subsidies are also expected to be stressed upon as being the other factors to lower poverty.