Extreme Poverty In India Could Be Down To 5 Cr: Reports

New Delhi: India may have achieved a big success in reducing extreme poverty. Indications are that the figure might have come down from 27 crore to less than five crore now. By 2030, India will have only 30 lakh people living in extreme poverty, dropping out of the worst 10 nations.

1. The sharp reduction could be attributed to growth policies pursued by successive governments and the use of direct benefit transfer schemes for delivery of social justice programmes such as MGNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and other such schemes, Times Of India said on Sunday, quoting professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy N R Bhanumurthy.

2.The household consumption data due for release in June this year is expected to reveal the latest estimates. Poverty estimates are derived from this data. And people surviving on less than Rs 134 a day as per World Bank measure fall in the extreme poverty category.

3. The significant reduction in numbers, if extrapolated, could bring good news for Odisha, which has lived with the ignominy of being one of the poorest states in India.

4. According to the World Data Lab, which monitors global poverty using advanced statistical models — less than 50 million Indians may be living on less than Rs 134 a day now.

5. It has projected that India will be out of the list of top 10 countries in terms of extreme poverty by 2030. African countries will represent nine of the top 10 countries by that time.

5. According to renowned thinktank Brookings, “the soon to be the largest country in the world has been reducing extreme poverty fast and the world may have underestimated India’s achievement”. It said the latest household survey would capture household consumptions more comprehensively by applying latest methodologies.

6. The household consumption would capture the actual picture of the rate of poverty decline in Odisha. During a recent presentation before the 15th Finance Commission, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had said that Poverty in Odisha has declined by 24.61 per cent from 2004-05 to 2011-12, which is the highest reduction among major States in the country.

7. Taking 2011 figures into consideration, incidence of poverty remains highest in Odisha at about 40 per cent, followed by Jharkhand at 34.8 per cent and Bihat at 32.5 per cent.

8. Eastern Indian states have the highest poverty rates in the country, followed by the Northern states. The Southern and the Western states come in the succeeding order