ABSTRACT
The Indian poverty line represents the first explicit attempt of a democratically elected government in the Third World to make the reduction of poverty an operational planning goal. There are superficial similarities between poverty in India and poverty in the United States, but there are important differences in level and scale. To get some sense of the level, consider three groups in the United States: the homeless, the elderly, and members of households headed by women. China, of course, had made revolutionary strides between 1949 and 1960 in redistributing land and other productive assets and in improving health and distributing amenities through the "iron rice bowl" and other communally provided services. Given the difficulties of using expenditure surveys, it is not surprising that some have tried to measure directly the caloric intake available to the poor. Such research leads to conclusions about the numbers of persons below a minimum caloric intake.
