In 1977, the Government of Rajasthan initiated a programme named Antyodaya, meaning the rise of the last. This name was borrowed from one of the Gandhian strategies for the amelioration of poverty. The modality adopted for its operation was, however, very different. Antyodaya focused on individual poor families, particularly the poorest of the poor. For their identification, the Programme decided to take the help of the villagers, employing a technique similar to the EP described above. It was initially decided to select five families from each village with the help of the village elders and provide them government assistance. Later, the number of families selected per village was linked to the size of the village, and thus the number varied.
For the identification of the poorest five families in each of the villages, the following criteria were prescribed:
- Families having no economic assets, having no person in the 15–59 age group capable of economic activity due to infirmity, disability or old age;
- Families having no economic assets but having one or more persons capable of economic activity whose per capita family earnings did not exceed
100 per month. - Families of landless labourers and artisans, whose annual earnings were between 1,200 to 1,800 for a family of five persons.
- Families which had some land and other assets but were below the poverty line, that is, below a per capita consumption level of 55 per month.7
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