It has already been pointed out earlier that income levels in Nepal are very low and one of the lowest in the world. A number of efforts have been made to measure rural incomes in Nepal and all of them suggest that the levels of poverty are very high.

In 1973, ARTEP made a study of a number of villages both in the hills and the Terai and arrived at an annual per capita figure of Rs. 308 and Rs. 429 respectively for the hills and the Terai. Both of these figures were found to be substantially below the minimum required annual per capita expenditure which was found to be Rs. 701 for 1972/73. And this applied to about 70 and 60 per cent of the population in the hills and the Terai respectively.¹

¹ See ARTEP, Employment and Basic Needs in Nepal, A Preliminary Analysis of Problems and Policies, Bangkok, 1982, p. 51.

According to the survey by the National Planning Commission in 1976/77, the annual per capita income stood at Rs. 1038 which is lower than the figures derived from the national income estimates. Although more will be said about the distribution of this income, the same survey also showed that an average rural household would require an annual income of more than Rs. 3500 in 1975/76 to meet the minimum expenditure levels for basic requirements of family.²

² Quoted in ibid., pp. 52.