India has made significant progress in Poverty Reduction - World Bank

A recent World Bank (WB) report, titled World Bank’s Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, highlights India’s substantial progress in reducing poverty.

- Kishore Kumar Biswas

According to the report, extreme poverty in India declined from 16.2% in 2011-12 to just 2.3% in 2022-23. This means that 171 million people have been lifted above the poverty line. Rural extreme poverty fell from 18.4% to 2.8%, while urban poverty decreased from 10.7% to 1.1%. Consequently, the rural-urban poverty gap has narrowed significantly, dropping from 7.7% to 1.7%. This represents an annual decline of 16%, according to the report.

The Poverty and Equity Briefs (PEB) from the World Bank track trends in poverty, shared prosperity, and equality across more than 100 developing countries.

What Defines Poverty?

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than $2.15 per day, based on purchasing power parity (PPP). This international benchmark adjusts for differences in price levels between countries, rather than using domestic currency exchange rates. Currently, on a PPP basis, $1 is equivalent to about ₹22 in India, meaning that individuals living on less than approximately ₹46 per day are considered extremely poor.