BPL Survey Questions and Analysis
BPL survey and LSS-Prayas effort
This website gives details of the Below Poverty Line (BPL) struggle carried out by people of Chittorgarh district with the help of the Khetihar Khaan Mazdoor Sangathan (KKMS - Landless farmers and Mine workers Union). AID has been actively working with NGO's Prayas and Lok Shikshan Sansthan(LSS) that are part of the KKMS.
The 2002 BPL survey was conducted in a very flawed way and has resulted in the exclusion of many poorest of the poor from the BPL list. In Chittorgarh alone, 77 thousand people are left out of the new BPL list.
KKMS, Prayas and LSS have been leading the grass root struggle in Chittorgarh for a fair BPL list for the poor.
Below is the flyer from the recent Dharna conducted by KKMS
Ratni Bai, a poor Muslim woman of Bhootia village, Chittaurgarh District went to the fair price shop on the 17th of Sept to get her monthly ration of 35 kg wheat and 4 litre kerosene. The ration dealer refused saying she can no longer get ration at subsidized prices as she is not in the new Below Poverty Line (B.P.L) list.
Kalu Ram, a poor Bheel in the Dheerji Kheda Panchayat of Chittaurgarh district was shocked to find that the new B.P.L list had the names of people with tractors and 40 bighas of land, but had no place for him.
Many such stories were shared by aggrieved villagers at a dharna organized by Kisaan Mazdoor Sangatan in front of the Collectorate at Chittaurgarh. Khemrajji of the Sangatan said that many poor villagers were angry and frustrated when they realized what had happened and are joining the dharna in huge numbers.
On the first day of the dharna, 286 people came from 57 different villages of Chittaurgarh Tehsil. On the second day 213 people came from 55 villages of Nimbaheda Tehsil. On both the days, people shared experiences of the B.P.L census process from their villages. A mass letter writing session to the Chief Minister and Prime Minister was organized where hundreds of people sent post cards demanding that their names be included in the B.P.L lists and the faulty processes in the identification be corrected. The Govt. has not responded to its citizens yet and the Sangatan has decided to launch a relay hunger strike starting 5th of Oct.
Khemrajji of LSS-Prayas addressing the protest
This is not the first time that the issue of BPL has been raised in Rajasthan. In Chittaurgarh itself, the civil society organisations after a prolonged tussle with the local administration in the process of finalization of the B.P.L lists helped rural poor families file over 7000 appeals en masse, which were all rejected. In the first week of May, Kisaan Mazdoor Sangatan launched a dharna, the demands of which were accepted, but not implemented.
Inspite of the protests, the State Government released the BPL census 2002 on 15 Sept 2006. The census identified 17,36,200 families as below poverty line, 3,61,360 less than the BPL census of 1997. The distribution has been extremely disproportionate among the different districts of Rajasthan. While the districts of Jodhpur and Ganganagar showed a near 100% increase in the number of BPL families, a number of other districts showed a huge decrease. In the district of Chittaurgarh alone 77,111 families lost access to ration cards, housing schemes and health cards that they had been availing atleast partially for several years in the past.
This time, the Sangatan is determined to continue the dharna till all its demands are accepted and also implemented, RamRai of Mazdoor Kisan Sangatan said.
The Sangatan demands that :- the survey be made available to the ward sabhas for identification of poor families after deleting the irrelevant and ill-designed questions and all the Bheel families from the districts of Chittaurgarh, Kota, Boondhi, Bilwada, Rajasmand be awarded the Antyoday status.