After HCES, need new approach to define poverty line: Pronab Sen
economictimes.indiatimes.comnew approach to define the poverty line, to determine how many people cannot afford basic services, in the light of new consumption estimates, former chief statistician of India, Pronab Sen told ET.
«We have new estimates (after the release of the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 on Saturday), and questions of applicability of older poverty lines will be raised by many,» Sen said, noting the need to revise poverty calculations. In India, the methodology for calculating poverty estimates was last devised in 2014 by an expert group headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan after experts had raised concerns regarding the poverty line constituted by the Suresh Tendulkar-led committee as being too low. However, the government has since moved away from income-based poverty lines and uses a multidimensional poverty index, which considers a wider range of parameters besides income. The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) is expected to start the debate on whether older committee reports can be taken as a benchmark, Sen said. The Rangarajan committee had recommended poverty lines of monthly per-capita incomes of ₹972 in rural areas and ₹1,407 in urban areas for 2011-12.
Sen also noted that new consumption estimates have surprised many as the share of food in the overall consumer basket has not declined significantly.
«The share of food has not gone down significantly in the new HCES, but there has been a redistribution within the food basket,» he said. The share of food in
