India's poor deprived in more ways than one, but state count misses that

Income, consumption or lack of "capabilities": what makes a person poor in India?

Noida: Chandni Khatoon's (26) family gets 9 kg of wheat and 6 kg of rice in a month from the ration shop. To feed his daughter, wife, three sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, her father buys 25 to 30 kg of rice in a month at its retail price.

"We get chana now [since the lockdown], but just 1 kg in a month. Everything else (dal, oil, spices) we buy from the shops here," she told IndiaSpend. The family prefers rice to rotis, and occasionally eats pulses, meat and vegetables, "when we can afford it," Chandni said.

Not counting