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Issuing ID Cards To The Poor
By KTM Metro Reporter
March 22, 2012: the concerned state agencies such as Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) and Central Bureau of Statistics have set to work on identifying the poor in the country to issue them the ID cards after the Board Meeting of PAF presided over by Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai on February 27, 2012, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of March 21, 2012 writes. They will conduct a survey on the poor in this fiscal year and issue ID cards to them in the fiscal year 2012.
According to the report of the Asian Development Dank (ADB), a rise in the cost of main food items such as rice and wheat could push tens of millions of people into extreme poverty in South Asia; however, subsidies on these food items might help them in mitigating the poverty.
South Asia has the high population growth rate and the large number of people already living on or close to the extreme poverty line of $1.25 a day makes this region the most vulnerable to the food price rise in the world. The poor in the South Asia spend half of the total budget of low-income households on food already.
"Subsidizing the cost of a basic meal for the poorest and most vulnerable in places like India means the help goes to those who need it the most without putting an excessive burden on government finances," said Hiranya Mukhopadhyay, an economist in ADB’s South Asia Department and an author of the report.
The study says that a 10 per cent rise in prices could push almost 30 million more Indians and nearly 4 million more Bangladeshis into extreme poverty. Pakistan also is at risk, with the same price leap causing an additional 3.5 million people to drop to or below the $1.25-a-day income mark.
Nepal and Sri Lanka would be less affected, although a further surge in wheat prices would be especially painful for Sri Lanka, which is completely dependent on imports of the wheat and has already seen historically high price rises in recent years, the report says.
The report titled Food Price Escalation in South Asia: A Serious and Growing Concern states that after peaks in 2008 and 2011, prices of key food items have eased somewhat, although the rate of decline has been slower in South Asia than the international average. In addition, the region suffers from higher overall food inflation rates than the rest of developing Asia, with food making up a bigger share of items measured by the consumer price index.
Although governments in the region have taken steps to counter high food prices, some measures may not be helpful to neighboring countries. For example, India’s temporary food export restrictions could have adverse impact on prices in the neighboring countries, as India is the world’s second largest rice producer.
Strengthening home-grown initiatives such as the food bank established in 2008 by the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation may also help to smooth out price volatility and improve food security in the South Asian region during times of shortage, the report says.
