ABSTRACT
The poverty line is an essential ingredient of any poverty analysis. It specifies the level of income that is just sufficient to maintain the basic minimum standard of living. Rowntree (1901) was the first to measure the cost of maintaining a minimum standard of living. He first estimated the minimum money costs for food, which would satisfy the average nutritional need of families of different sizes. To these costs, he added the rent paid and certain minimum amounts for clothing, fuel, and sundries to arrive at a poverty line for a family of given size. A family is classified as poor if its total earnings are less than its poverty line. This approach is popularly known as the basic needs approach.
