Describe how the poverty line is estimated in India.

A common method used to measure poverty is based on the income or consumption
levels. While determining the poverty line in India, a minimum level of food requirement, clothing, footwear, fuel, light, educational and medical requirement, etc’ are determined for subsistence. These physical quantities are multiplied by their prices in rupees. The total minimum food requirement is measured in calories which is 2,400 per person per day in rural areas and 2,100 calories in urban areas. The total equivalent-amount for these requirements is considered as poverty line. It may be mentioned here that the calorie requirements in rural areas is higher than the urban areas because rural people do more physical work. The monetary expenditure per capita needed for buying these calorie requirements is revised periodically taking into consideration the rise in prices. Thus poverty line in 2000, for a person was fixed at ₹328 per month for the rural areas and ₹454 for the urban areas Despite less calorie requirements, the higher amount for urban areas was due to higher prices in the urban areas. The poverty line is estimated periodically (after 5 years) by conducting sample surveys by the National Sample Survey Organisation.