Congress leader Digvijay Singh said here on Monday that the poverty line should be based on the financial background of a person.
"The definition of poverty is different for different areas. At some places even 50 rupees are enough and at some places even 200 are less. So, the family background and financial condition of a person should be considered before setting the poverty line, said Singh.
"Issues like weather a person is a victim of malnutrition or not, weather he owns his own house and land or not and how much wealth he posses should be considered," he added.
A panel headed by former Economic Advisor to Prime Minister C.Rangarajan sets the poverty line at RS.32 per day in rural areas and Rs.47 in urban areas.
The panel has dismissed the Tendulkar Committee Report on estimating poverty, which had suggested persons spending below Rs.33 per day in urban areas are to be considered poor.
As per the report submitted by Rangarajan to Minister of State, Statistics and Programme Implementation, Rao Inderjit Singh, it said the poverty stood at 38.2 per cent in 2009-10 and had slid to 29.5 per cent in 2011-12.
The Rangarajan Committee was set up last year to review the Tendulkar Committee methodology for estimating poverty and clear the ambiguity over the number of poor in the country.
