Paper Title
Consumption Pattern and Nutrition based Poverty Income: A Case Study of Purba Bardhaman District of West Bengal
Abstract
The latest estimation of poverty line as done by the Rangarajan committee (2014), was based on 68 round unit
level NSSO data on consumption expenditure which was applicable for whole nation. Then the estimation of the statespecific
poverty line as well as poverty line for rural and urban segments has been done by suitably adjusting the national
level poverty line with price differentials. The committee ignored the impact of particular locations with different distances
from a metropolitan city to other urban areas or a district town to other rural areas, occupational structures, on consumption
patterns. The committee has ignored the fact that consumption patterns differ not only among states but also within a state
among the urban areas according to their distances from a metropolitan city and also among the rural areas according to their
distances from a district town. This study is concerned with fresh estimation of poverty line income on the basis of
consumption pattern and minimum nutritional requirement of people living in an urban location and three villages within a
state. Our contention is that pattern of consumption changes not only over time (Utsa Patnaik,2010), but also in urban areas
as well rural areas in particular States; accordingly, the poverty line should also be different. To examine the validity of our
presumption, in this study, we have chosen an urban area Bardhaman and three villages Fakirpur, Palasan and Jamalpur of
West Bengal and estimated the poverty lines of these locations, on the basis of respective consumption baskets of these
areas, separately. We have seen a significant difference in consumption pattern and poverty line income level not only for
the urban area but also among the different rural areas within a district of a state.
JEL Codes - I32, I3
Keywords - Poverty Measurement, India, Adult Equivalent Scale