Q.What is meant by "Below Poverty Line (BPL)"?
Below Poverty Line (BPL) is the official classification given to households whose per-capita income or consumption expenditure falls below the poverty line estimated for their state and area (rural/urban). BPL classification is used by the government to identify households eligible for targeted anti-poverty schemes and subsidies — such as subsidised foodgrains under the Public Distribution System, housing assistance, and various welfare benefits.
Households above the poverty line are correspondingly classified as Above Poverty Line (APL). BPL surveys in India have historically used a mix of income/consumption criteria and, more recently, a broader set of socio-economic deprivation indicators (as in the Socio-Economic Caste Census) to identify genuinely poor households, since income alone is difficult to measure accurately for informal-sector workers.
BPL denotes households whose income/consumption falls below the official poverty line, making them eligible for government welfare and subsidy schemes targeted at the poor.
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