Number of Urban Poor :

           The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that as per the Planning Commission estimates 807.60 lakhs urban people were below poverty line in the year 2004-05. A Statement showing State-wise number of urban poor is at Annexure.

                In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today she said, the poverty line has been traditionally defined by the Planning Commission on the basis of Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) as the criterion. The number and proportion of persons living below the poverty line are computed for the States as well as the country using the data from Large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure carried out by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO). 

She said, no State Government has approached the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation regarding reservations on the criteria for determination of urban poor.

Annexure

Population below poverty line urban areas (2004-2005)
S. No.	States/UTs	Urban Poverty line (Rs. Per capita per month)	No. of Persons (Lakhs)	Head Count Ratio (%)
1	2	3	4	5
1	Andhra Pradesh	563.16	51.30	23.40
2	Arunachal Pradesh	618.45	0.70	23.50
3	Assam	600.03	8.40	21.80
4	Bihar	526.18	40.90	43.70
5	Chhattisgarh	513.70	13.40	28.40
6	Delhi	642.47	18.90	12.90
7	Goa	671.15	1.70	22.20
8	Gujarat	659.18	41.90	20.10
9	Haryana	626.41	15.80	22.40
10	Himachal Pradesh	605.74	0.30	4.60
11	Jammu & Kashmir	602.89	2.90	10.40
12	Jharkhand	531.35	15.60	23.80
13	Karnataka	588.06	50.80	25.90
14	Kerala	584.70	15.70	18.40
15	Madhya Pradesh	532.26	61.70	35.10
16	Maharashtra	631.85	116.10	25.60
17	Manipur	641.13	2.10	34.50
18	Meghalaya	745.73	1.20	24.70
19	Mizoram	699.75	0.40	7.90
20	Nagaland	782.93	0.20	4.30
21	Orissa	497.31	22.70	37.60
22	Punjab	642.51	17.20	18.70
23	Rajasthan	568.15	42.80	29.70
24	Sikkim	741.68	0.20	25.90
25	Tamil Nadu	559.77	61.30	19.70
26	Tripura	555.79	1.30	22.50
27	Uttar Pradesh	532.12	130.30	34.10
28	Uttarakhand	602.39	6.40	26.20
29	West Bengal	572.51	57.90	24.40
30	Pondicherry	506.17	0.70	9.90
	ALL INDIA	578.80	807.60	25.70

Note: The new poverty lines have been generated for all the states including the north-eastern states. However, in the absence of adequate data, the expert group has suggested use of poverty line of the neighboring states for union territories.

Source: Tendulkar Committee Estimates of Poverty released by The Planning Commission.

PIB Release, August 17, 2011