expenditure.<sup>6</sup> There was no mention of the basket of goods that was used by the Tendulkar Committee to define the poverty line.

In Annexure E of its report, the Tendulkar Committee gave a detailed itemized list of the expenditures of those “around poverty line class for urban areas in all India”. Unfortunately, it did not report the corresponding quantities purchased of various commodities. In this paper, we now compute these quantities from unit-level data where feasible and report them in Table 1 for a household consisting of five members.<sup>7</sup> Our implicit per-person expenditures on individual items are within 3 rupees of their corresponding expenditures reported in Annexure E of the Tendulkar Committee report.

We report quantities wherever the relevant data are available. In the survey, the quantities are not always reported in weights. For example, lemons and oranges are reported in numbers and not in kilograms. In these cases, we have converted the quantities into kilograms using the appropriate conversion factors. The main point to note is that while the quantities associated with the poverty line basket may not permit a comfortable existence including a balanced diet, they allow above-subsistence existence. The consumption of cereals and pulses at 50.9 and 3.5 kilograms compare with 48 and 5.5 kilograms, respectively, for the mean consumption of the top 30 percent of the population. Likewise the consumption of edible oils and vegetables at 2.7 and 23.9 kilograms for the poor compare with 4.5 and 35.5 kilograms, respectively, for the top 30 percent of the population.<sup>8</sup> This comparison shows that at least in terms of the provision of two square meals a day, the poverty line consumption basket is compatible with above-subsistence-level consumption.

We reiterate our point as follows. In 2009-10, the urban poverty line in Delhi was 1040.3 rupees per person per month (34.2 rupees per day). For a family of five, this amount would translate into 5,201.5 rupees per month. Assuming that each family member consumes ten kilograms per month of cereal and one kilogram per month of pulses and the prices of the two grains are 15 and 80 rupees per kilogram, respectively, the total expenditure on grain would be 1,150 rupees.<sup>9</sup> This would leave 4,051.5 rupees for milk, edible oils, fuel, clothing, rent, education, health and other expenditures. While this amount may not allow a fully balanced diet, comfortable living and access to good education and health, it is consistent with an above-subsistence level of existence. Additionally, if we take into account access to public education and health and subsidized grain and fuel from the public distribution system, the poverty line is scarcely out of line with the one that would allow exit from extreme poverty.

But what about the role of the poverty line in identifying the poor for purposes of redistribution? Ideally, this exercise should be carried out at the local level in light of resources available for redistribution since the poor must ultimately be identified locally.

> 6 For instance, one commentator argued in a heated television debate that since bananas in Jor Bagh (an upmarket part of Delhi) cost Rupees 60 a dozen, an individual could barely afford two bananas per meal per day at poverty line expenditure of 32 rupees per person per day.

> 7 We thank Rahul Ahluwalia for supplying us with Table 1.  The expenditures in the table represent the average of the urban decile class including the urban poverty line.  Since the urban poverty line is at 25.7 percent of the population, the table takes the average over those between 20<sup>th</sup> and 30<sup>th</sup> percentile of the urban population.

> 8 The consumption figures for the top 30 percent of the population are from Ganesh-Kumar et al (2012).

> 9 These amounts of cereal and pulses equal or exceed their mean consumption levels according to the 200405 NSSO expenditure survey.

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