800 million living on 20 Rp a day

[Awesome]

So 457 million is like what 45% of the population. Out of that 395 million is around 39% of the population. Add to that the author says 79% of the 395 million i.e around 300 million earn less than 20 rupees.
300 million is round 30% of the population, which is nearer to the known 23-25% below poverty line in India.

So what is the fuss all about. The author just twisted the KNOWN FACTS and made it more glamorous by throwing in some numbers...

And yes by the way Daily Time so easily twist the report and says 80% of Indians earn less than 20 rs and then in the details it is 80% of "Unorganised Sector"...

So much for the reporting about facts..

India's poverty-line is at 50cents a day?

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Even the poor in Bangladesh earn more than 50 cents a day. I never suggested that Indians were in their millions but that there was an estimated 5 lakhs in BD. From the article that started this thread it is clear what they are escaping from in India.

 

[Marathaman]

Even the poor in Bangladesh earn more than 50 cents a day. I never suggested that Indians were in their millions but that there was an estimated 5 lakhs in BD. From the article that started this thread it is clear what they are escaping from in India.

Goddammit man.

Give me an inch here. Talking to you people is like talking to a wall.
Atleast admit to something for heavens sake.
Seriously, I am beginning to doubt whether you can be reasoned with at all.

Your posts are getting mind-numbingly repetitive.

 

[Bushroda]

India's poverty-line is at 50cents a day?

Poverty line isn't calculated by amount of pennies earned but on the basis of calorie consumption and basic needs like clothing, education & healthcare. If your calorie comsumption is above 2300 calories and your earnings are sufficient to manage your healthcare and expenditure then you are above poverty line even if you earn 10 cents a day. It is all calculated on the basis of Power purchasing parity. If $1 per day is criteria of poverty measurement then that $1 signifies amount of money earned equivalent to $1 on PPP basis. 50 cents in India is equivalent to $2 per day on PPP model. Even 3 quarter of Pakistan's population survives on less than $2 a day similar to India. Bangladesh is even worse. Although I don't have the figure for BD but one can make a smart guess from the fact that 45% of BD population is under the povertyline of $1 per day by PPP method. Similar figure for India is 28%.

 

[Awesome]

In India 50cents are enough for one laborer to feed a family of, let's say 5 with an earning of 50 cents?

So your poverty line is at 50 cents. What the number for the people earning under 10$/day?

I know in Lahore construction laborers took between 300-600 rupees a day. Now even they find it REALLY tough to make ends meet and provide for their large families. So I doubt your claims about the calorie intake bought by 50cent/day being the poverty line, that's probably rock bottom.

 

[con]

India's poverty-line is at 50cents a day?

It isn't. The percentage of below poverty line is according the international norm of 1$/day.
And it is per person,which means a family of four is technically earning (at 50 cents for example) 2 dollars/per day.

Enough to sustain a family of four. If they happen to be in a village that is a very good earning. In a city they wil have a tough life,not life threatening poverty.

 

[Awesome]

I'm not the one arguing about that. Some crazy maths was done by one of our members here which implied the very same thing.

I guess a dollar per person is okay... You can get more than 3-4 chapatis/rotis with that for the day. I mean that would make sense...

It raises the question, what really constitutes as poverty!

1$/day is quite frankly a very low standard. Are you sure that's correct? Our countries should aim for something decent like 10$ as poverty and below that is just a horrible... That's not below the line that's rock bottom. Not technically, but at least realistically.

 

[Bushroda]

Asim, read my post#22 which should give you a comprehensive idea of how low-income people are supported by the GoI. I find it extremely hard to believe that someone earning Rs.600($10/day) is finding hard to make ends meet. If so then Pakistan has a serious problem with inflation. Anyhow, goods and services are expensive in Pakistan compared to India.

Let me explain you how it works

India's GDP at market exchange rate is $922.9 billion. Its GDP at Power Purchasing parity is $4,294 billion. The ratio of difference is 4.65 i.e 4,294/922.9. Let say the official exchange rate for dollar is Rs.45. Then on purchasing power basis 1 dollar is equivalent to 9.61 Indian rupees(i.e Official exchange rate of $/ratio of difference = 45/4.65). Therefore, 20 indian rupees calculates to a little over $2 on PPP basis.

Similar exchange rate for Pakistan calculates to 1 dollar equivalent to 18.5 pakistani rupees on PPP basis. Here is the respective data for India and Pakistan below

http://www.economist.co.uk/countries/India/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-FactSheet

http://www.economist.co.uk/countries/Pakistan/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-FactSheet

Worldbank, IMF all state that 77% of Indian population & 74% of Pakistan's population earn $2 or less than that. It means that 77% of Indian population earns less than 20 Indian rupees & 74% of Pakistani population earns less than 37 Pakistani rupees a day.

 

[joey]

A nice post thought of posting..

Firstly, There is already a nice Reuters' spin on the document posted regarding absolute poverty which has been proved wrong. Secondly, When they say people living on X amount, they mean consumption per capita, not income. Third, all data on income, wages, consumption, etc. is based on NSSO's 1999-2000 round, i.e. the reported data are 8 years old, given in FY1999-2000 prices, and have all of the limitations of a CSO-run data collection process (viz. competence, discounting black money, etc.). I would posit that while 77% of the population is poorly off by Industrialized standards ($2/day reported to the government by my hisab is roughly equivalent at PPP to the income poverty lines in the EU-15), they are still 4x as well off as Nigerians (where 77%+ of the population lives in below 1985PPP$1/day income poverty), i.e. the poverty of this group is relative not absolute.

 

[Bull]

I'm not the one arguing about that. Some crazy maths was done by one of our members here which implied the very same thing.

I guess a dollar per person is okay... You can get more than 3-4 chapatis/rotis with that for the day. I mean that would make sense...

It raises the question, what really constitutes as poverty!

1$/day is quite frankly a very low standard. Are you sure that's correct? Our countries should aim for something decent like 10$ as poverty and below that is just a horrible... That's not below the line that's rock bottom. Not technically, but at least realistically.

10$ a day, 410 rs a day!!!

 

[blain2]

Who bothered to write about Pakistanis economic boom? Who has the time to waste writing all those ' wonderland ' stories. 99% of the threads that Indians have posted
here about Pakistan is about the extremism previaling there. We bring in the Pakistani side only when we see the blessed souls from across the border comes speaking to us about our economic misery.

Bull, you and your Indian friends need to get over your insecurities..its freaking amazing that a freaking article appears in the Indian press and you people act as if it were a lie and us Pakistanis are the only ones seeing it. You guys can all gang up and get your last words in here for the sake of doing it and it would not change a darn thing in terms of reality. India is still a third world country with a lot of potential. The same can be said about Pakistan or for that matter any other South Asian country. So try to understand what I am saying here (go back to me first few posts). This is pretty much the last post from me on this topic (which has gone down the shitter as usual).

 

[Awesome]

Also do remember they aren't employed 365 days a week.

Like I was doing some construction work in Lahore and I used to go to this place generally called the "Adda" and picked a few handful of laborers waiting over there. I would hire then for 4-5 days to do things like mix cement and concrete and haul it up in wheelbarrows.

 

[Bushroda]

Also do remember they aren't employed 365 days a week.

Like I was doing some construction work in Lahore and I used to go to this place generally called the "Adda" and picked a few handful of laborers waiting over there. I would hire then for 4-5 days to do things like mix cement and concrete and haul it up in wheelbarrows.

Asim, It doesn't matter whether they work 10 days in a year or all the 365 days or whether they earn for themselves or for their whole family. The bottomline is that their daily per-capita income is 20 IR(Indian rupees). If they have dependents then obviously they have to earn more otherwise they are going to be counted in the below poverty group. So, if a worker earns 100 IR a day and has four dependents then it divides as 20 IR per head.

 

[aksingh]

people factor in refugees 100 million nepalese, bangladeshis, tibetans, afghans, iranians, kashmiris(internally displaced)....
foreign remittances, India is the worlds largest receiver...
hawala...
black money india's black market economy is as large as white...
very few of the indian population is under tax net and the numbers are speculative...

 

[Patriot]

Thanks Blain2 for posting the report.An eye opener for me.