Kamal Chenoy

In another case of voodoo mathematics that governs social policy, especially for the poor, it was estimated that anyone whose income is Rs. 42 per day is not poor. It would be nice if the ex-IMF, ex-World Bank FDI worshipping bankers and theorists would try living for a week on a daily Rs. 42 per day. Instead limits on FDI are being like following the earlier UPA-II regime.

Little said about inflation, resilient poverty, malnutrition. Even in Gujarat the CAG has estimated that one in every third child is underweight. Ahmedabad, the industrial hub of Gujarat, there are 80,000 malnourished children. All this in the fêted “Gujarat Model,” as also shown in essays and studies by Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen. Dreze has shown that in economic development indices Gujarat ranks between 9-11 among the 20 major States. But these truths are ignored and wealth rather than poverty spreads. What happened to pro-people policies? They were bought out by the rich.

(Kamal Chenoy is a Professor at SIS, JNU. This article is reproduced from his facebook post.)