Poverty line is estimated by the per capita expenditure on minimum calorie intake. It was estimated to be 2400 calories for a person of rural area and 2100 for a person of urban area. This calorie-based norm is not adequate to identify the poor due to following reasons –

1. It puts all the poor in a single group and does not differentiate between very poor and other poor so it becomes tough to identify that who needs the aid most.

2. It considers only the expenditure on few selected food items.

3. It does not consider other important factors associated with poverty like healthcare, quality of drinking water, sanitation, education etc.

4. It also ignores the other social security factors like lack of access to resources, lack of civil and political freedom, discrimination, etc.