Strategy for Removal of Poverty-Lopsidedness of Fifth Plan Approach

Lopsidedness of Fifth Plan Approach FOR the first time in the history of Indian planning, one finds in the Approach to the Fifth Plan the concrete objective of providing minimum consumption for the bottom 30 per cent of the population. The monthly per capita consumption of the lowest 30 per cent of the population, at 1971-72 prices, was estimated for 1973-74 to be Rs 22.90 in the rural areas and Rs 25.17 in the urban areas. By 1978-79, the monthly per capita consumption of this lowest 30 per cent of the population is to rise to Rs 36,64 in the rural areas and to Rs 39.60 in the urban areas. Thus the increase, over the Fifth Plan period from the initial 1973-74 level, works out to 60 per cent for the rural poor and 50 per cent for the urban poor.