Level of income to meet minimum living conditions.
Amount of money needed for basic needs.
Money value of goods and services for basic welfare.
Differs by country.
People below poverty line are poor; above are non-poor.
Planning commission defined poverty line based on nutritional requirement (rural 2400 calories, urban 2100 calories).

Dadabhai Naoroji: 'Jail cost of living'.
Study Group (1962): Rs 20/month rural, Rs 25/month urban (1960-62 prices).
YK Alagh Committee (1979): Calorie basis (2400 rural, 2100 urban).
Lakdawala Expert Group (1989): Retained Alagh report.
Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2005): Adopted 2004-05 urban poverty line based on Lakdawala committee methodology.
Rangrajan Committee (2014): Reverted to separate all-India rural and urban poverty line baskets.

Chronic Poor:
1. Always Poor
2. Usually Poor
Transient Poor:
1. Churning Poor (move in and out of poverty)
2. Occasionally Poor
Non-Poor:
1. Never Poor

Removing obstacles to individual capabilities (illiteracy, ill health, lack of resources, lack of civil/political freedoms).
Sen Index: Government measures are often insufficient for poverty eradication.

Number of poor estimated as proportion below poverty line, known as 'Head Count Ratio'.
Official data based on Planning Commission.
Estimated using consumption expenditure data from NSSO.
World Bank (2019): 6% of total population (84 million) in poverty.
Asian Development Bank (2019): 7.7% of employed population below $1.90 PPP/day.
Unemployment rate (2020): 7.1%.
Child mortality (2019): 34 deaths/1000 births for children under 5.
7% of Indian population in extreme poverty, 0.6 Indians escaping poverty every minute.
Global Hunger Index (2021): India ranks 101st out of 116 countries, with serious hunger (score 27.5).
World Bank (pandemic-induced): Poor population more than doubled to 134 million from 60 million.

Years	No. of Poor	Percentage to total population