The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Planning Commission is the nodal agency in the Government for estimation of poverty in the country. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, the Planning Commission has computed estimates of poverty for the year 2009-10 based on the latest data of large scale survey on household consumer expenditure collected by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) NSSO in its 66thround conducted
during 2009-10. The poverty lines and poverty ratio for 2009-10 have been computed following Tendulkarmethodology and released through a Press Note issued on 19th March, 2012. According to this Press Note, the poverty ratio in the country is estimated as 29.8% in 2009-10. A Statement showing State/UT-wise poverty data is at Annexure. Kumari Selja said, the Planning Commission, in June 2012, has constituted an Expert Group under the Chairmanship of Dr. C. Rangarajan to “Review the Methodology for Measurement of Poverty”.
