Do They Count?
It takes some of the most complex calculations to decide the poverty line. In 1962, a group of eminent economist and social thinkers suggested a method: a national minimum consumption expenditure of Rs 20 per capita per month in rural areas and Rs 25 per capita per month in urban areas would be calculated at 1960-61 prices to define the poverty line.
The Planning Commission has been counting the poor since 1979 using this definition. These estimates are revised as per the methodology recommended by the Commission's Expert Group on Estimation of poverty. In 1993, an expert group set up by the Planning Commission recommended a poverty line based on calories intake: 2,400 calories per capita per day for rural areas and 2,100 calories per capita per day for urban areas. The expenditure required to get this at the 1973-74 prices would decide the poverty line.
The poverty line is updated by taking care of the prevalent cost of the required calories. But this process ignores any changes in consumption pattern thus putting a question mark over its authenticity. The Expert Group, however, evolved an alternative methodology for estimation of poverty ratios using the consumer expenditure survey data of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) and state-specific poverty lines.
The NSSO survey adopts two methods to ascertain the expenditure amount thus resulting two separate estimates of poor. The consumer expenditure data of the 55th round on a 30 day recall basis yields the poverty ratio for 1999-2000 of 27.09 per cent in rural areas and 26.1 per cent for the entire country. The corresponding figures from the seven-day recall period are 24.02 per cent rural areas and 23.33 per cent for the entire country.
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