For example, in 1962, a pioneering study group of India's Planning Commission set a monthly per capita consumption level of rupees (Rs) 20 in 1960-1961 prices as the bare minimum level-of-living threshold. This excluded expenditure on health and education, since it assumed that such needs would be covered directly for all and for free by the State, as enjoined upon it by India's Constitution. The State's obligation has not been fulfilled but the assumption of its fulfilment has nevertheless survived. In India, the official poverty line does not cover education and health needs. Factoring these in on the basis of the actual expenditure pattern of the median household reveals that the poverty line would need to be raised by 10.4 per cent for rural areas and by 15.6 per cent for urban areas.2 The rates of rural and urban poverty would increase from the official estimates of 28.3 and 27.5 per cent to the revised estimates of 36.4 and 35.8 per cent, respectively (Ravi and Dev, 2008, pp.