Given India's strides in reducing extreme poverty, should the country consider redefining its poverty line to better reflect the socio-economic realities? Discuss the potential benefits and challenges associated with redefining the poverty line.

Causes of poverty decline:

Provision of services by govt. (eg PM Awas, PM Ujwala 2014-2023)

Jobs creation in service and manufacturing sector

Better remuneration for farmers.

The current poverty line is based on the income levels of the people. It is based on the Tendulkar formula which defines poverty as amount required to fulfill basic calorie needs.

Current issues in poverty line estimation:

Doesn't take into account access to basic services such as water, electricity

Doesn't measure level of education of the person.

Doesn't focus on standard of living

Therefore, there is a need to redefine the poverty line which should take into account:

educational and health levels

per capita income of the person.

Access to basic necessities

Opportunities for growth.

Potential Benefits → comprehensive measure of poverty

Takes into account the present needs of society

Ability-(social and economical) based on education, healthcare and opportunities

However, there are challenges in these:

measuring by various level of indicators

Assigning weightage of different indicators

varying levels of access

Multidimensional poverty index of NITI Aayog is more comprehensive. There is a need to adopt similar new measures to redefine poverty levels in the society and strive to eliminate it (SDG 1).

— Aditya Agarwal