Extreme poverty at lowest level due to free grain scheme: IMF
New Delhi, April 6
Extreme poverty was as low as 0.8 per cent in the pre-pandemic year, 2019, and food transfers were instrumental in ensuring that it remained at that low level in 2020, claims a working paper of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) authored by Surjit Bhalla, Karan Bhasin and Arvind Virmani.
The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKAY), which provides free foodgrains to poor people, played a key role in keeping extreme poverty in India at the lowest level of 0.8 per cent during the pandemic-hit 2020, it said.
Running for 2 yrs
Free foodgrain up to five kg is provided per month under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, which was launched in March 2020
The working paper “Pandemic, Poverty and Inequality: Evidence from India” gives estimates of poverty and consumption inequality in India for each of the years 2004-5 through the pandemic year 2020-21.
The PMGKAY launched in March 2020 by the Union Government provides up to five kg of foodgrain per month for free. The additional free grain is over and above the normal quota provided under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) at a highly subsidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg. The PMGKAY has been extended till September 2022.
“Further, as early as 2016-17, extreme poverty had reached a low of 2 per cent. According to the more appropriate but 68 per cent higher Low Middle Income (LMI) poverty line of PPP (purchasing power parity) USD 3.2 a day, poverty in India registered 14.8 per cent in the pre-pandemic year 2019-20. This achievement is put in perspective by noting that in 2011-12, the official poverty level for the lower PPP USD 1.9 line was 12.2 per cent,” it noted.
