印度新的貧窮定義遭到抨擊

In India, norms set by the country’s main planning body to calculate poverty have been slammed by critics who fear they will exclude vast numbers of the needy from social welfare programs. About one third of India’s 1.2 billion population is poor, according to official estimates.

在印度，政府主要的計劃部門爲貧窮線所設定的標準遭到批評人士的抨擊，他們擔心，這會使衆多民衆無法獲得他們需要的社會福利項目。官方估計，印度12億人口中有大約三分之一的人生活貧困。

Hari Singh earns about $150 a month working as a security guard in the business hub of Gurgaon near Delhi. After paying $40 to rent a small room in a slum, the 45-year-old can barely manage to buy enough food for the house.

哈里辛格每個月賺大約150美元，他在德里附近的商業中心戈加恩當警衛。他在一個貧民區租了一個小房間，付了40美元的房租後，這位45歲的男子只能勉強爲全家人張羅到夠吃的食物。

Singh says fruit and milk are out of his reach. He estimates he needs double his income to cover basic expenses on housing, health care and schooling for his son.

辛格說，他買不起水果和牛奶。他估計，他需要兩倍收入才能支付住房，醫療保健和兒子上學等基本開銷。

But Hari Singh will not be counted among India’s poor, according to new criteria proposed by the planning commission to determine the poverty line.

但是，根據計劃委員會提出的新貧窮線標準，辛格不會被列爲印度的窮人。

The planning commission has told India’s supreme court that a person who spends roughly half a dollar a day on food, education and health in rural areas, or $15 a month, will not be considered poor. The bar for the poverty line for urban areas is slightly higher - 66 cents or about $20 a month. The figures are far below the World Bank’s international poverty standard of $1.25 per day.

計劃委員會對印度最高法院說，一名在鄉村地區的人每天花費大約零點5美元用在食物，教育和醫療上，也就是相當於每個月15美元，就不被認爲是窮人。城市地區的貧窮線則稍微高一些，爲每天66美分，大約每個月20美元。這個數字遠遠低於世界銀行的1點25美元國際貧窮標準。

The planning commission, which guides economic policy, formulated the norms after the country’s top court asked it to explain the basis for its poverty numbers.

指導經濟政策的計劃委員會是在印度的最高法院要求解釋其貧窮線的基礎之後，定出這些標準的。

The new criteria follow a contentious debate, in recent years, on how to identify India’s poor. After being determined for decades by a person’s calorie intake, it has now moved to income.

新標準出臺前，印度近年來對如何認定貧窮出現了激烈辯論。幾十年來都是以個人的熱量攝取來決定，現在則改爲以收入爲決定標準。

But activists and many economists have slammed the new norms for being unrealistic. They say that in a city such as New Delhi, 66 cents would buy a person no more than an onion, a potato, some rice, a banana, a pencil, an aspirin and a bus ticket.

但是活動人士和很多經濟學者抨擊新的標準脫離現實。他們認爲，在類似新德里這樣的城市，66美分只能夠讓一個人買到一個洋蔥，一個土豆，少許米，一根香蕉，一支鉛筆，一粒阿斯靈，和一張大巴車票。

"It’s been understood for some time that this poverty basket is very restrictive. But what is new and I think completely startling is the claim that this poverty line actually ensures adequate expenditure on food, health and education. That really cannot be justified from a common sense point of view… This is more like a starvation line than a poverty line," said Jean Dreze, a prominent development economist involved in India’s economic policy making.

德萊茲是著名的發展經濟學家，他參與了印度經濟政策的制定。他說：“一段時間以來我們瞭解到，政府對貧窮線的計算有很多限制，但是新標準和過去不同的地方，也是讓我觸目驚心的地方在於，新的貧窮線聲稱確保人們在食物，醫療和教育方面有足夠的開支。從常識的觀點來看這完全不能自圓其說，新的標準更像是饑荒線，而不是貧窮線。”

The planning commission says it has to set the poverty line to target those who are most in need. Officials stress that the government must make the best use of limited funds it has to spend on social welfare programs and they cannot cast the net too wide.

計劃委員會指出，該委員會必須設定貧窮線來針對最需要幫助的人。官員們強調說，政府必須善用有限的經費在社會福利項目上，他們不能把項目的範圍訂得太廣泛。Despite India’s spectacular economic growth, millions of people are still poor. The Congress-led government has ambitious plans to cut poverty by spending billions of dollars on employment, health care and education programs. It proposes to pass a law to give cheap food grains to the poor. It wants to replace subsidized fuel and fertilizer with cash transfers.

儘管印度有傲人的經濟增長，數以百萬計的印度人仍然窮困。國會領導的政府制定了雄心勃勃的計劃，通過花費幾十億美元在就業，醫療保健和教育項目上來減少貧困人口。政府提議通過一項法律給予窮人廉價糧食穀類。政府還希望用現金轉帳來取代補貼汽油和肥料。

But activists argue that the government is trying to reduce its welfare burden by reducing the number of those who will qualify for state benefits. Among the critics is Biraj Patnaik, adviser to an official commission on the right to food.

但是活動人士認爲，政府試圖通過降低符合接受邦福利的人數，來減少其福利負擔。批評人士之一派特奈克(Biraj Patnaik)是一個有關食物權利的官方委員會顧問。

"What they want to do is to exclude 70 percent of the people of this country from any benefit that anti-poverty programs are giving, and this will then subsequently lead to a decline in subsidies… But this is eliminating the poor by deceit, by default and not by improving their lives," said Patnaik.

派特奈克說：“他們想要把印度70%的民衆排除在任何福利之外，這些福利是反貧窮項目所提供的。這種做法接着就會導致補貼下降。但這是用欺騙，用不履行義務，不改善人們生活的方式來消除貧窮。”

About 32 percent of India’s 1.2 billion people, or roughly 400 million people, live in poverty, according to official estimates.

據官方估計，印度12億人口中有大約32%，也就是將近4億人生活貧困。

But several economists argue that these figures do not accurately reflect the extent of deprivation in a country where nearly half the children under five are malnourished.

但是，一些經濟學家認爲，這些數字並沒有確實反映出這樣一個國家被剝奪的程度，印度將近一半的5歲以下兒童營養不良。

A government appointed watchdog, the National Advisory Council, has been arguing that social support should now be extended to all citizens because the country can afford it.

政府指派的監督單位國家諮詢委員會一直認爲，社會支持項目現在應該擴大到所有公民，因爲印度政府負擔得起。

Economist Dreze, who was a member of the council, supports this. He says some states in the country, like Tamil Nadu in the south and Himachal Pradesh in the north, are showing the way.

經濟學家德萊茲是國家諮詢委員會的成員，他支持這個看法。他說，印度的一些邦，例如南部的泰米爾納德邦，以及北部的喜馬偕爾邦，正在出現這種方式。

“We can have comprehensive social security systems and many states in India are actually moving in that direction, expanding the public distribution system and I think the experience of that is reasonably positive that when more people are involved in the system, it works much better. A lot of people have a stake in it. When you have social services restricted to this minority of extremely poor households, it does not work very well, nobody cares," said Dreze.

德萊茲說：“我們可以有全面的社會安全體系，印度很多邦確實正朝這個方向發展，擴大公衆分配體系。我認爲，這種經驗是合理正面的，顯示了有更多人蔘與這種制度，其效果就更好。這種制度攸關很多人的利益。當社會服務不提供給極貧困家庭的少數人口時，這個制度的效果不會好，也沒有人會在乎。”

Among those who agree with the proposal to expand benefits is security guard Hari Singh.

同意擴大福利提案的人之一是警衛哈里辛格。

He says, however the official norms define poverty, he counts himself among the country’s poor and would appreciate a helping hand from the government.

辛格說，不論官方訂出的貧窮標準如何，他認爲自己是印度的窮人，他會感激政府提供的幫助。