What is poverty

• Lack of Basic amenities

• Basic nutrition – 2400

• Lack of shelter

• Medication

• Education /energuy

How should we define poverty

Year 2004-2005

• Rural India = Rs 356 / month / person– That is …… less than Rs 12 per day – And you need to earn 2400 cal

• Urban India = Rs 538 / month / person– That is …… less than Rs 18 per day – And you need to earn 2100 cal

India: poverty line or starvation line

Say, 2 meals a day

• Rural India = available less than Rs 6 per meal per day – To earn 1200 cal per meal

• Urban India = available less than Rs 9 per meal per day – To earn 1050 cal per meal

Cont…

Let us build a small food basket of staple food items (1 meal)S.No Food item Calories Cost

1 Rice (100 gms) 151 Rs 1.50

2 Wheat (100 gms) 217 Rs 1.20

3 Pulses (100 gms) 340 Rs 3.20

4 Potato (100 gms) 115 Rs 1.20

5 Tomato (100 gms) 18 Rs 1.20

6 Onion (100 gms) 35 Rs 1.20

7 Oil (2 teaspoon) 240 Rs 1

8 Total ~ 1100 Rs 10.50

Rs 21

per day per person to feed him 2100 calories

This is just the survival cost

And we have still not included cost of

‘cooking fuel’

This take the total cost to

@ Rs 18 per day per person, maximum

Gross underestimation

And our govt. defines poverty line

Minimum wage range in India

Say Bihar Rs 66 / day

And in Delhi Rs 134 / day

National level minimum wage = Rs 66 / day

11-14 times higher than the poverty line

And we know the life conditions of these minimum wage earners

And contraction because

Why cant Planning Commission and Ministry of Labor work together to find out at least a

reasonable poverty line figure

Radical approach is needed to decide how many of us are actually poor

Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (Rs)

Calorie Intake per capita per diem

% of persons

Cumulative % of persons

Rural India Below 225 1383 5.10 225-255 1609 5.00 255-300 1733 10.10 300-340 1868 10.00 340-380 1957 10.30 380-420 2054 9.70 420-470 2173 10.20 470-525 2289 9.30 525-615 2403 10.30

80

(Or the direct poverty

estimates for rural areas)

615 - Above 2581 - above 20.00 20 Urban India

Below 300 1398 5.00 300-350 1654 5.10 350-425 1729 9.60 425-500 1912 10.10 500-575 1968 9.90 575-665 2091 10.00 665-775 2187 10.00

59.7

(Or the direct poverty

estimates for rural areas)

775 - above 2297 - above 40.30 40.3

Poverty line minimum calorie requirement

Poverty line minimum calorie requirement

60+ years

of independence and we are still to define a minimum dignified

‘standard of living’

Is food all that is needed for survival

Let us see if we can derive a poverty figures

Components for calculation and their imputed daily costs S.No Survival items Cost per day

1 Food (with cooking fuel) 20

2 Clothing 2

3 Shelter 5

4 Health (look beyond medicine) 2

5 Education 3

6 Energy requirements 2

7 Entertainment ?? 5

Cont…..

S.No Survival items Cost per day

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

So what is our poverty threshold like

Rs 39/ day per person

Mohan Guruswamy of CPA suggest the poverty line in India should be …….

Rs 840 per capita per month

With this figure 70% of total and 84% rural population fall BPL