Dandekar-Rath Method of Poverty Line

In their study of Poverty in India, V. M. Dandekar and Nilkanth Rath used the concept of poverty line. They constructed the poverty line based on the income required for a person to purchase a given calorie norm of food per day. At the 1960–61 price levels, these authors fixed poverty line at  15 for rural areas and  22.50 for urban areas. According to their calculations, in terms of this yardstick, nearly 54 per cent of the urban population (42 million people) was below the poverty line, while in rural areas it was around 33 per cent (135 million people).

This publication generated a good deal of debate in India. However, the concept of poverty line gained considerable currency.

While calorie intake is a convenient yardstick, it is deceptive. There are no standards to define the minimal nutritional requirement. There are people who may be regarded as malnourished, but they live long lives and carry out arduous tasks that many well-nourished people, coming from the affluent strata of society, may find difficult to do. Moreover, it is not always possible to translate nutritional requirement into food requirement. Food intake is governed by the cultural conditioning of an individual and not by the objective nutritional value of a food item. A vegetarian cannot be compelled to eat meat to fulfil his protein needs. If tasteless, an individual would refuse to eat cheaper food of high nutritional value. ‘The actual incomes at which specified nutritional requirements are met will depend greatly on the consumption habits of the people in question’ (Sen, 1999: 12). Critics of calorie intake as a measure for poverty have argued that malnutrition is just one indicator of poverty, not its composite index.

Moreover, daily minimal needs include items other than food, and it is not easy to specify these requirements as they differ from culture to culture and are affected both by climatic conditions and work habits. What proportion of the income would be spent on food and what on other items is determined by several factors, including inflationary trends, people’s choices, and availability of goods and services.