1. What is poverty Lack of Basic amenities Basic nutrition – 2400 Lack of shelter Medication Education /energuy

2. How should we define poverty

3. 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

4. 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…

5. Let us build a small food basket of staple food items (1 meal) S.NoFood itemCaloriesCost 1Rice (100 gms)151Rs 1.50 2Wheat (100 gms)217Rs 1.20 3Pulses (100 gms)340Rs 3.20 4Potato (100 gms)115Rs 1.20 5Tomato (100 gms)18Rs 1.20 6Onion (100 gms)35Rs 1.20 7Oil (2 teaspoon)240Rs 1 8Total~ 1100Rs 10.50

6. 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

7. @ Rs 18 per day per person, maximum Gross underestimation And our govt. defines poverty line

8. 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

9. Why cant Planning Commission and Ministry of Labor work together to find out at least a reasonable poverty line figure

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

11. 60+ years of independence and we are still to define a minimum dignified ‘standard of living’ Is food all that is needed for survival

12. Let us see if we can derive a poverty figures

13. Components for calculation and their imputed daily costs S.NoSurvival itemsCost per day 1Food (with cooking fuel)20 2Clothing2 3Shelter5 4Health (look beyond medicine)2 5Education3 6Energy requirements2 7Entertainment ??5

14. Cont….. S.NoSurvival itemsCost per day 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15. So what is our poverty threshold like Rs 39/ day per person

16. 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