{"id":87758,"date":"2026-10-31T18:00:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=87758"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:01:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T12:31:25","slug":"poverty-reduction-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/31-10-2026\/poverty-reduction-in-india","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s Poverty Decline Is Among the Fastest Globally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Economy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A World Bank report titled <strong>India Poverty and Equity Brief: October 2026,<\/strong> India has achieved one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>India\u2019s Progress in Poverty Reduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Decline in extreme poverty:<\/strong> The proportion of the population living below the international extreme poverty line of<strong> $3 per person per day <\/strong>(measured in 2021 purchasing power parity) declined from <strong>27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Poverty measured against the Lower Middle-Income Country<\/strong> poverty line of $4.20 per person per day declined from 57.7% to 16.1% between 2011 and 2023, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of poverty.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It expects poverty (measured against the $4.20-a-day threshold) to decline further\u2014from 14.2% in 2026 to <strong>12.1% by 2028.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is a Poverty Line?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A poverty line is a <strong>threshold level of income or consumption<\/strong> used to determine whether an individual or household is poor.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Anyone living below this threshold is considered unable to afford basic necessities such as <strong>food, shelter, clothing, education, and healthcare.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It helps the government;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>to gauge the extent of poverty and <strong>shape welfare policies<\/strong> for the poor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>to <strong>understand whether a set of policies has actually worked <\/strong>over time to reduce poverty and improve wellbeing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Drivers of Poverty Reduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Expansion of employment:<\/strong> Employment increased by approximately <strong>134 million people<\/strong> between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the growth in the working-age population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Greater participation of women:<\/strong> Increased participation of rural women in paid employment has raised household earnings and the number of income earners per family.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Expansion of social protection:<\/strong> Food subsidies and other government transfers helped protect vulnerable households from economic shocks and improve their consumption levels.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Greater access to essential facilities<\/strong> such as electricity, sanitation, drinking water and housing has contributed to reducing non-monetary deprivation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Initiatives Taken by the Government<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY):<\/strong> The scheme aims to provide industry-relevant skill training to youth in order to improve employability and enhance job opportunities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013:<\/strong> It gives legal entitlement to <strong>67%<\/strong> of the population (75% in rural areas and 50% in urban areas) to receive highly subsidized foodgrains.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ayushman Bharat scheme:<\/strong> It offers health insurance coverage of up to<strong> \u20b95 lakh<\/strong> per family per year to shield beneficiaries from the financial burden of expensive medical treatments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to Education Act (RTE): <\/strong>The RTE Act, enacted in 2009, provides free and compulsory education for children between<strong> 6 and 14 years.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana \u2013 National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM): <\/strong>It<strong> <\/strong>aims to reduce poverty by enabling the poor household to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Persistent Challenges Despite Poverty Reduction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Regional concentration:<\/strong> Poverty is increasingly concentrated geographically, with states in the contiguous belt stretching from <strong>Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal<\/strong> accounting for approximately<strong> 57%<\/strong> of India&#8217;s poor population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Widening wage disparities: <\/strong>Median earnings among the top <strong>10%<\/strong> of workers were approximately <strong>13 times<\/strong> those of the <strong>bottom 10% in 2023.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This indicates that employment growth has not necessarily translated into equitable income distribution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Youth unemployment<\/strong> increased from 14.6% to <strong>15.9%<\/strong> between the first quarters of FY2026 and FY2027.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Low-productivity employment: <\/strong>Much of the employment growth was concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities, limiting improvements in household income and living standards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Strengthen labour-intensive sectors <\/strong>such as textiles, food processing, tourism and construction to generate productive and sustainable livelihood opportunities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Address structural inequalities:<\/strong> Reduce regional disparities through targeted investments in infrastructure, human capital and industrial development in poverty-concentrated regions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Strengthen regular household consumption surveys<\/strong> and multidimensional poverty assessments to identify emerging vulnerabilities and improve policy targeting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<p><strong>Committees for Poverty Estimation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lakdawala Committee (1993)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was constituted in 1993 and made the following suggestions:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>State-specific poverty lines should be constructed, and these should be updated using the <strong>Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers (CPI-IW)<\/strong> in urban areas and <strong>the Consumer Price Index of Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL) <\/strong>in rural areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tendulkar Committee (2009)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was constituted in <strong>2005<\/strong> and submitted its report in <strong>2009.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Committee recommended a shift away from calorie consumption based poverty estimation. It incorporated private expenditure on health and education.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Consumption expenditure was broken up into per person per day consumption, resulting in the figures of <strong>Rs 32 <\/strong>and <strong>Rs 26<\/strong> a day for urban and rural areas.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The national poverty line for 2011-12 <\/strong>was estimated at <strong>Rs. 816 <\/strong>per capita per month for rural areas and <strong>Rs. 1,000<\/strong> per capita per month for urban areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Rangarajan Committee (2014)&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It was constituted in <strong>2012<\/strong> and submitted its report in <strong>2014<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Committee recommended separate consumption baskets for rural and urban areas.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Rangarajan Committee set the rural poverty line at<strong> \u20b9972 per month (\u20b932 per day).<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The urban poverty line was set at \u20b91,407 per month (\u20b947 per day).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>These estimates pegged <strong>29.5 percent<\/strong> of the Indian population as poor in 2011-12.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The government did not take a call on the report of the Rangarajan Committee,\u00a0 therefore, poverty is measured using the<strong> Tendulkar poverty line.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-made-remarkable-progress-in-reducing-poverty-world-bank\/article71646460.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> A World Bank report titled India Poverty and Equity Brief: October 2026, India has achieved one of the fastest poverty declines in the world. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> India\u2019s Progress in Poverty Reduction <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Decline in extreme poverty: The proportion of the population living below the international extreme poverty line of $3 per person per day (measured in 2021 purchasing power parity) declined from 27.1% in 2011 to 2.6% in 2023. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Poverty measured against the Lower Middle-Income Country poverty line of $4.20 per person per day declined from 57.7% to 16.1% between 2011 and 2023, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of poverty. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/31-10-2026\/poverty-reduction-in-india \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87758","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87760,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87758\/revisions\/87760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}