Ethics, Economics and Poverty

The UPA government - especially the Planning Commission - has been taken to task for fixing a poverty line at a level (Rs 32 per capita/day in urban areas) that does not even guarantee a bare subsistence. In the medley of scathing critiques and rebuttals, three strands of arguments seem dominant. One is that the poverty line is utterly unrealistic as a measure of subsistence requirements of food, health and education. Indeed, it has been argued that the poverty line is so low that it could barely buy one or two items of a subsistence basket. 

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