In a written reply given to the Rajya Sabha last week, the Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that as per the Planning Commission estimates 807.60 lakhs urban people were below the poverty line in the year 2004-05. She said that the poverty line has been traditionally defined by the Planning Commission on the basis of Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) as the criterion. The number and proportion of persons living below the poverty line are computed for the States as well as the country using the data from Large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure carried out by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). She said, no State Government has approached the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation regarding reservations on the criteria for the determination of urban poor.
URBAN POOR IN INDIA
Note: The new poverty lines have been generated for all the states including the north-eastern states. However, in the absence of adequate data, the expert group has suggested the use of the poverty line of the neighboring states for union territories. Source: Tendulkar Committee Estimates of Poverty released by The Planning Commission
