Revision summary
A poverty line is a consumption or income cut-off for counting the poor. India’s recent expert lines are Tendulkar and Rangarajan; older lines were thinner calorie anchors. BPL lists are administrative, and they can miss the genuine poor. MGNREGA and NFSA are the wage and food floor of alleviation. NRLM/NULM, PMAY, Ujjwala, PM-JAY, and skills are the ladder above that floor.
Model answer
Introduction
A poverty line is a cut-off of consumption or income below which a person is counted poor for policy. In India it has been a calorie-and-basket line from expert committees, not a single moral truth. Alleviation programmes then try to lift people over that line — or, better, to make the line less lethal — through work, food, credit, housing, and skills.
Body
Line of Poverty
- Official Indian practice has used a consumption basket (food plus some non-food) valued at prices, often anchored to calorie norms.
- The Tendulkar committee (2009) moved toward a broader consumption line and urban–rural price difference; the Rangarajan committee (2014) proposed a higher line and a different basket.
- Earlier Lakdawala and Planning Commission lines used calorie anchors that critics said were too thin for a healthy life.
- BPL/priority lists for schemes are administrative cousins of the line; they can exclude the genuine poor when the survey is old or capture is political.
- A line measures a snapshot. It does not measure dignity, assets, or the risk of falling back.
Poverty-alleviation programmes
- Wage and food floor: MGNREGA (rural work on demand) and NFSA/PDS (legal grain) are the largest consumption insurance.
- Self-employment and credit: IRDP gave way to SGSY and then DAY-NRLM (women’s SHGs) and DAY-NULM in cities — credit plus a group, not only a cow loan.
- Housing, toilets, fuel: PMAY, SBM, and Ujjwala cut living-cost poverty that a calorie line under-counts.
- Human capital: ICDS, mid-day meals, RTE, and skill missions (PMKVY and ITIs) try to stop poverty becoming hereditary.
- Social security: NSAP pensions, PM-JAY hospital cover, and crop insurance for farm households.
- Area and group programmes: tribal, hill, and backward-region windows, plus scholarships, because a national line hides pockets.
Alleviation is a ladder of floors. A line without a job and a school is only a census category.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD B[Consumption basket] --> L[Poverty line Tendulkar Rangarajan] L --> P[BPL priority list] W[MGNREGA NFSA] --> A[Alleviation] S[NRLM NULM skill] --> A H[PMAY Ujjwala PMJAY] --> A P --> A
Conclusion
The poverty line is a consumption cut-off used to count the poor; Tendulkar and Rangarajan are the recent expert versions, and BPL lists are the delivery cousin. India’s alleviation stack is MGNREGA, NFSA, NRLM/NULM, housing-health-fuel, and skills. The line is a tool; exit still needs regular work.
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PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2024 · Q14 · UPGS3 · 12 marks
Critically evaluate the strategy of poverty alleviation programmes in India, in recent years.
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