Professors, economists question Kerala’s claims about eradicating ‘extreme poverty’

A group of professors, economists and journalists have urged the Kerala government to make public the study report to back up its claim that the state had become “extreme poverty-free”.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had made the declaration on Saturday during a special session of the Assembly to mark the 69th anniversary of the state’s formation. With this, Kerala became the first state in the country to declare that it had eradicated extreme poverty.

While the government was preparing to make its declaration, 25 persons, including economists MA Oommen and KP Kannan, wrote an open letter to the administration on Thursday.

They cited a note by the Department of Local Self-Government, which defines the “extremely poor” as those who have no income at all, those who lack two meals a day, those who have no means to cook even if they receive rice rations, and those whose health is very poor.

The signatories questioned whether such persons should not be categorised as “destitutes” instead of “extremely poor”.

Here’s the full text of the letter:

Is Kerala a Destitute-free State or Extreme Poverty-free State?

1. What were the criteria used to identify the “extreme-poor” (athi dharidhrar in Malayalam) in the state? Which reliable committee carried out the survey? The government must make public the study report and establish the credibility of...

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