monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE)

It will go a long way if some nutritional schemes targeted towards the poorest of the poor are put in place to raise their level of nourishment to have a healthy life

यदि गरीब से गरीब व्यक्ति को लक्ष्य करके कुछ पोषण संबंधी योजनाएं लागू की जाएं, तो इससे काफी मदद मिलेगी, जिससे उनका पोषण स्तर बढ़ेगा और वे  स्वस्थ जीवन जी सकेंगे।

what they daily eat ? 

 The National Sample Survey Office 

About NSSO 

1 The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was established in 1950 to conduct large-scale sample surveys across India.

2  The NSSO is under the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) and is led by a Director General. 

3 The NSSO's employees are from the Indian Statistical Service (ISS) and the Subordinate Statistical Service (SSS), both of which are appointed by the UPSC

why in News 

NSSO recently released a detailed report 

based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES): 2022-23. 

unit-level data on household consumption expenditure (HCE) 

Along with the report, the unit-level data on household consumption expenditure (HCE) is available in the public domain.

 The HCES collected data

• quantities of various food items consumed by households
•  during specified periods 
• total value of consumption of different food and non-food items. 

This analysis uses this information 

to convert the quantities of food to calorific value, and then compares the estimated per capita per day calorie intake of household 

in the lower expenditure classes with the average per capita daily calorie requirement for a healthy life.

Approach of measurement

This analysis addresses two key issues: 

• who are ‘poor’ ?
•  and two, the measurement aspect of the nutritional level.

who is poor according gov ?

 including the 

• Lakdawala, 
• the Tendulkar, 
• Rangarajan Committees, have defined the poor as the persons below the ‘poverty line’ (PL). 

The below powerty line ?

1 PL is a monetary equivalence based on household monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE) 

2 that should be sufficient for the household to purchase the food and non-food items included in the poverty line basket (PLB).

comettee and their view 

The Lakdawala Committee 

said food and non-food items, to 

• calorie norms of 2,400 kcal per capita per day for rural areas and
• 
  
•  2,100 kcal per capita per day for urban areas. 

Tendulkar Committee

did not anchor the PL to a calorie norm. 

Rangarajan Committee

PL is based on ‘certain normative levels of 

• adequate nourishment, 
• clothing, 
• house rent, 
• conveyance and education, 
• and a behaviorally determined level of other non-food expenses’.

per capita calorie requirement (PCCR) 

 

The methodology of this analysis first derives the average daily per capita calorie requirement (PCCR) for a healthy life

 based on the recommended energy requirements for Indians of different age-sex-activity categories as per the latest (2020) report of ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition.

weighted average of the calorie requirements 

The PCCR has been worked out as a weighted average of the calorie requirements of persons in different age-sex-activity categories with corresponding weights as the proportion of estimated persons in these categories as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2022-23.

 persons are arranged into 20 fractile classes of MPCE

(poorest to richest), each comprising five per cent population, with the estimates of average per capita per day calorie intake (PCCI) and average MPCE (food and non-food) derived for each class based on the data of HCES 2022-23. From this all-India distribution, the average MPCE on food linked to the normative level of the PCCR is derived.

average per capita expenditure on food 

can be considered the minimum amount a household must spend on food items for its members to maintain a healthy life..

The PCCR is estimated 

to be 

• 2,172 kcal for rural India and 
• 2,135 kcal for urban India. 
• 
  

At 2022-23 prices, the all-India threshold total MPCE /  average money spent  is 

• ₹2,197 (food: ₹1,569 and non-food: ₹628) for rural India
•  ₹3,077 (food: ₹2,098 and non-food: ₹979) for urban India.
•  The corresponding proportion of ‘poor’ i.e. deprived is estimated at 17.1% for rural areas and 14% for urban areas.

If the non-food expenditure 

of the poorest 10% is considered instead of the poorest five per cent, the threshold total MPCE increases to ₹2,395 for rural areas and ₹3,416 for urban areas, with the consequent increase in the corresponding proportion of deprived to 23.2% for rural India and 19.4% for urban India. 

Regarding nutritional deficiency

the average PCCI of the poorest five per cent and the immediately above five per cent in rural India is 1,564 kcal and 1,764 kcal, respectively. For urban India, it is estimated to be 1,607 kcal and 1,773 kcal, respectively, which fall far short of the PCCR.

 The government has several welfare programmes, aimed at uplifting the poor, including improving their health conditions. It will go a long way if some nutritional schemes targeted towards the poorest of the poor are put in place to raise their level of nourishment to have a healthy life.

Source the hindu