{"id":22670,"date":"2024-03-16T18:53:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T13:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=22670"},"modified":"2024-09-03T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T07:09:59","slug":"poverty-estimation-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/editorial-analysis\/16-03-2024\/poverty-estimation-in-india","title":{"rendered":"Poverty Estimation in India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Social Justice: Poverty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0cb2d8d8970fcc76e5fb15bd21ee6252\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>NITI Aayog B.V.R. Subrahmanyam <\/strong>recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line. He made the claim based on the findings of the <strong>Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), 2022-23.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7b8b4aefd3d18a4a26d2e590e5f861b3\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) <\/strong>claimed<strong> <\/strong>that India\u2019s rural poverty level had declined to<strong> 7.2% in 2022-23 from 25.7% in 2011-12,<\/strong> while <strong>urban poverty slipped to 4.6% from 13.7%<\/strong> over the same period.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The HCES is usually conducted by the <strong>National Statistical Office (NSO) every 5 years<\/strong>. It is designed to collect information on the consumption of goods and services by households.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>At a national level,<\/strong> the report reckoned that the <strong>poverty rate in India could now be in the range of 4% to 5%<\/strong>, with a caveat that these numbers could undergo minor revisions once the Census to count the population that was due in 2021, is completed and the rural-urban population share is published.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7a538b9046d18b0949f4109d537afbb7\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Other Estimates of Poverty in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u2018Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06: A Discussion Paper\u2019: NITI Ayog:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Multidimensional poverty in India <strong>declined from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>As many as <strong>24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in nine years to 2022-23<\/strong>, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh registering the largest decline.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/editorial-analysis\/07-07-2024\/multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi-2023\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/editorial-analysis\/07-07-2024\/multidimensional-poverty-index-mpi-2023\">Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023<\/a>:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The MPI 2023 estimates show a <strong>near-halving of India\u2019s national MPI value and a decline from 24.85% to 14.96% between 2015-16 and 2019-21.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This reduction of 9.89 percentage points implies that about <strong>135.5 million people have exited poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Besides, <strong>the intensity of poverty<\/strong>, which measures the average deprivation among the people living in multidimensional poverty, <strong>reduced from 47.14% to 44.39%.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2411673fd44083f66729f403896afcee\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Poverty in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Poverty entails <strong>more than the lack of income and productive resources<\/strong> to ensure sustainable livelihoods. <strong>Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services<\/strong>, social discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Poverty in India <strong>remains a complex challenge<\/strong> despite significant reductions in recent decades.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-deac8c40746e4536f8c4bd93372943e9\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Current Issues<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Debates on Definition and Measurement: <\/strong>Different poverty lines (income levels considered poor) and data sources lead to varying estimates.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/world-bank-group-wbg\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/world-bank-group-wbg\/\">World Bank<\/a>, using the $2.15 per day benchmark<\/strong> (PPP &#8211; Purchasing Power Parity), estimates an <strong>11.9% poverty rate for India.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Indian government claims a <strong>lower national poverty, with figures below 5%<\/strong> of the population below the poverty line .<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Government Data: <\/strong>The Indian government uses its own poverty indicators, which tends to show lower poverty rates compared to international benchmarks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Uneven Progress:<\/strong> Poverty reduction has been faster in rural areas compared to urban areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3f87118a44b2d028805d85b77c4dff6c\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Causes of Poverty<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Limited Livelihood Opportunities:<\/strong> Lack of access to good jobs, especially in rural areas, keeps people trapped in poverty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social Inequality: <\/strong>Caste discrimination, gender bias, and lack of access to education disproportionately affect marginalized communities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Low Productivity in Agriculture:<\/strong> The level of productivity in agriculture is low due to subdivided and fragmented holdings, lack of capital, use of traditional methods of cultivation, illiteracy etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Inequality in the Distribution of Income and Assets:<\/strong> The poor mainly consists of unskilled labor, which typically does not command a high enough level of wage income.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The benefits of the growth have been concentrated and have not <strong>\u201ctrickled down\u201d sufficiently<\/strong> to ensure improved consumption among the lower income groups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of Access to Social Services:<\/strong> The lack of access to social services such as health and education compound the problems arising from inequality in the ownership of physical and human assets<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of access to Institutional Credit:<\/strong> The banks and other financial institutions are biased in the provision of loans to the poor for the fear of default in the repayment of loans.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lack of Productive Employment :&nbsp; <\/strong>The magnitude of poverty is directly linked to the unemployment situation. The present employment conditions don\u2019t permit a reasonable level of living causing poverty.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Caste system: <\/strong>Caste system in India has always been responsible for rural poverty. The subordination of the low caste people by the high caste people&nbsp; caused the poverty of the former<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Social customs:<\/strong> The rural people generally spend a large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage, death feast etc. and borrow largely to meet these requirements. As a result, they remain in debt and poverty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vicious Circle of Poverty: <\/strong>Low level of saving reduces the scope for investment; low level of investment yields low income and thus the circle of poverty goes on indefinitely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-af5637497e5849fae8f449d7ac04f1a0\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Poverty Line Estimation in India<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Tendulkar committee (2009): <\/strong>Poverty line in the Suresh Tendulkar methodology was expenditure of <strong>\u20b933 a day in urban areas and \u20b927 a day in rural areas.&nbsp;<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Thus, India\u2019s poors as percentage of total population in<strong> 2011-12<\/strong> as per the Tendulkar committee was <strong>21.9.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rangarajan committee(2014):<\/strong> In the Rangarajan methodology, it was<strong> \u20b947 a day in urban areas and \u20b930 a day in rural areas.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Thus, India\u2019s poor population as percentage of Indian population in 2011-12 was <strong>29.5,<\/strong> as per Rangarajan committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Current poverty line calculation by NITI Aayog:<\/strong> A new approach has evolved by the NITI Aayog to incorporate multiple dimensions and non-income factors in the form of&nbsp; <strong>Multidimensional Poverty Index,<\/strong> based on <strong>National Family Health Surveys(NFHS) results<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>At the core of the MPI is the <strong>Alkire-Foster (AF) methodology, <\/strong>a globally accepted general framework for measuring multidimensional poverty, which captures overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>International Poverty Line: <\/strong>The <strong>World Bank<\/strong> defines a person as extremely poor if she is living on <strong>less than $2.15 per day,<\/strong> which is adjusted for inflation as well as price differences between countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-445af777dc35d7dbc450e8c829eb9e50\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Suggestions\/Measures<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Address interlinkages: <\/strong>Inequalities of income, education, and opportunity are all interconnected and must be addressed together.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reducing inequalities of opportunity<\/strong> and of incomes among individuals, populations, and regions can foster social cohesion and boost general well-being.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jobs and employment<\/strong> are the surest way to reduce poverty and inequality.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Poverty eradication must be mainstreamed<\/strong> into the national policies and actions in accordance with the internationally agreed development goals forming part of the broad United Nations Development Agenda.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Education and health:<\/strong> It is essential that the government should provide education and health services free of cost for the deserving citizens and those from the socially oppressed classes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a5c41bdc9ba0d8df1d0f0bcd40033f89\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Government Initiatives to Reduce Poverty in India&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Work (MGNREGA):<\/strong> It provides wage employment while also focusing on strengthening natural resource management through works that address causes of chronic poverty.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Flagship programmes like the Poshan Abhiyan<\/strong> and Anaemia Mukt Bharat have contributed to reduced deprivations in health.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Initiatives such as Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) <\/strong>have improved sanitation across the country.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The provision of subsidized cooking fuel through the <strong>Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)<\/strong> has positively transformed lives in rural areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Initiatives like <strong>Saubhagya, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), <\/strong>and Samagra Shiksha have also played a major role in significantly reducing multidimensional poverty in the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f8e305d9fde03a5a582b678b0480605c\" style=\"color:#015aa7\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India has made progress in eliminating extreme poverty but still there is a long way to go ahead, as seen in the World Bank\u2019s recent claim that<strong> 74% Indians still can&#8217;t afford a nutritious diet.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Further, to get the real picture of poverty in India <strong>revision of the poverty line <\/strong>as per changing socio-economic realities is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Daily Mains Practice Question<\/strong><br><br><strong>[Q] <\/strong>India has a long and ongoing battle against poverty. While significant strides have been made in recent years, eradicating poverty completely remains a complex and demanding task. Critically analyse.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-75\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/previous-year-upsc-mains-papers?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=utm_blog_pyqmains\">Download UPSC Mains Previous Year Papers<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-75\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Daily-Editorial-Analysis-16-03-2024.pdf\">Download PDF<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NITI Aayog B.V.R. Subrahmanyam recently claimed that less than 5% of Indians now live below the poverty line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-analysis"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22670"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28846,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22670\/revisions\/28846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}