Estimates across the years
- Alagh Committee 1979
- nutritional requirements (2400/2100)
- Lakdawala Committee 1993
- recommended CPI-AL / CPI-IW
- poverty estimates should be based on consumption expenditure survey by NSSO
- Tendulkar Committee 2009
- Poverty Line Basket
- included health + edu
- (816/1000)/person/month
- estd. 21.9% poverty rate
- Rangarajan Committee 2014 to review Tendulkar
- (972/1407)
- 29.5% poverty
- not adopted
- World Bank
- $2.15/day - extreme
- poverty: $3/day
- 5.75% in india as per WB
- NITI Aayog - Multi Dimensional Poverty Indicator
Importance of poverty estimates
- quantifies problem of poverty
- tracks progress
- targeting welfare schemes
- evaluating economic growth
- constitutional & legal mandates to promote welfare, socio-economic justice
- intl comparisons
Challenges
- defining basic needs
- exclusion of non food items (fixed in MPI)
- lack of official poverty line updates
- debate over actual poverty trends
- regional disparities