It’s not easy to be poor in Mumbai

Result: a flurry of missives flying in between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the state government and also between the state government and the Centre.

While in some cases Centre has agreed to make changes, in others it has put its foot down.

For instance a colour television was also mentioned as a criterion in the circular which was sent by the state government to the corporation. But the Planning Department wrote to the state government requesting them to strike off this criterion. The suggestion was accepted following consultations with the Union Government.

However, the BMC also does not agree with the Centre’s economic criteria toidentify poor families, which is an income of Rs 419.98 per capita per month.

“We had written to the state government on December 20 last requesting them to increase the per capita income as the present figure is very unrealistic. But the suggestion was not accepted,” said ward officer in charge of Planning Department P J Patil. Though, he did not specify what according to him would be the right figure, he added that the Centre in 1996-97 had fixed the figure at Rs 409 per capita per month.

Taking into account the inflation in the last two years, the figure cannot be less than Rs 608.

A survey which was completed recently by the BMC has listed 27,000 people below the poverty line. The final figures, Patil said, would be submitted to the state government next week.

Going by the National Sample Survey carried out by the Centre itself of 1993, about seven to eight per cent of the people in the country are below the poverty line. Going by this, there should be about eight lakh poor people inMumbai.

The current survey is being carried out by the BMC on the directions of the Centre to identify the poor who could benefit from the schemes to be implemented by the Centre for the poor such as the Suvarna Jayanti Urban Employment Scheme. As the BMC was specifically instructed not to rope in teachers for carrying out the survey, it has hired unemployed youths.

The youths are being paid Rs 1 per family surveyed, if the family happens to be above the poverty line.

However, if they identify a family under the poverty line, they get paid Rs 4 extra. “For these families, there was extra work and hence they are paid extra,” justified Patil. Such identified poor families are then surveyed again by senior officials of the ward such as assistant maintenance engineers.