Kerala
The government of Kerala is one of the few state governments which has formulated its own criteria.
In Kerala there are nine parameters. Families which lack access to four or more parameters are classified as BPL.
The nine parameters for urban areas are:
- No land or less than five cents of land
- No house or dilapidated house
- No sanitation latrine
- Family without colour television
- No regular employed person in the family
- No access to safe drinking water
- Women-headed household or presence of widows or divorcee
- Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (SC/ST)
- Mentally retarded or disabled member in the family
The nine parameters for rural areas are the same, but the colour television criterion is replaced by "family with an illiterate adult member" criterion.
Read more about this topic: Below Poverty Line (India)