Source: The post Measuring poverty through thali affordability has been created, based on the article “Equalising primary food consumption in India” published in “ The Hindu” on 19 September 2025. Measuring poverty through thali affordability.
UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 – population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues And GS Paper 3-food security.
Context: A new household consumption survey in February 2024 enabled fresh poverty estimates. An April 2025 World Bank brief reported extreme poverty at 2.3% in 2022–23. A thali-based consumption lens reassesses deprivation by checking whether households can afford two thalis per day.
For detailed information on Thali index questions India’s poverty decline read this article here
What sparked the new poverty debate?
- World Bank’s very low poverty figure: Extreme poverty fell from 16.2% (2011–12) to 2.3% (2022–23). This implies near-elimination of extreme poverty.
- Look beyond calorie lines: The long-used calorific line links income to calories. A broader view values energy, nourishment, and meal satisfaction, not calories alone.
- A consumption lens using NSS 2024: The NSS 2024 data are used to convert each household’s food spending into an equivalent number of “thalis.” A minimum norm of two thalis per person per day is taken to judge adequacy of food consumption.
How does the thali metric change the picture?
- A natural unit of food consumption: A thali combines carbohydrates, protein, and vitamins. It is a balanced, self-contained meal unit in South Asia.
- Pricing and affordability results: Using ₹30 per home-cooked thali (rice, dal, vegetables, roti, curd, salad), in 2023–24 up to 50% of rural and up to 20% of urban residents could not afford two thalis daily.
- Food as budget residual: Households must first pay for rent, transport, telephony, health, and education to stay work-ready. What remains goes to food. Therefore, the assessment relies on actual food expenditure, not total income, to capture real eating capacity.
What changes when PDS benefits are counted?
- Imputing PDS purchases and free grain: Adding the value of subsidised and free supplies lowers deprivation. Those below two thalis fall to 40% in rural and 10% in urban areas.
2 Persistent rural shortfalls: Despite subsidies, rural deprivation remains high. A grain-centric design offers limited relief to the most food-constrained.
- Cereals consumption has plateaued: Cereals intake is nearly the same for the poorest (0–5% fractile) and the richest (95–100% fractile). This shows that cereal consumption has reached its desired level across income groups, since even the richest cannot and do not consume more cereals than they already do.
How is the subsidy structure working—and where are limits?
- Rural leakage toward better-off groups: Well-off rural households are getting nearly the same PDS benefit as the very poorest households, even though they don’t really need it.
- Urban progressivity but very wide coverage: Urban subsidies are more progressive. Yet about 80% still receive subsidised sales and free food even when able to afford more than two thalis a day.
- A grain-heavy design with narrow spend share: Cereals constitute about 10% of average household expenditure. A cereals-centric system cannot by itself end broader food deprivation.
What policy shift is needed ?
- Rebalance subsidies: Raise support at the lower end and remove it at the upper end. The January 2024 expansion to 80 crore people and very large State entitlements do not reflect need and impose fiscal and logistical costs.
- Pivot PDS toward pulses/ For many, pulses are the main protein and are costly. Bottom-end per capita pulses consumption is exactly half that of the top end, indicating a clear deficit.
- Finance pulses by right-sizing cereals: Lower cereal entitlements to need. This reduces Food Corporation of India stocking requirements. Savings can fund pulses, making support compact and effective.
- Outcome and benchmark: Target those below a reasonable norm, two thalis per day. Equalising primary food consumption by raising the poorest toward the highest observed level becomes feasible and nationally significant.
Question for practice:
Examine how the thali-based consumption metric challenges official poverty estimates and what PDS reforms are net to reduce food deprivation.
