LONG ROAD AHEAD

FOCUS POVERTY ALLEVIATION

- Ajit Ranade

The recent estimate by the World Bank says that the number of people in India living in extreme poverty declined from 344 million in 2011-12 to 75 million in 2022-23. That is 269 million people crossing the threshold of extreme poverty over 11 years. That is quite impressive and laudable. Extreme poverty has a technical definition in terms of the purchasing power adjusted poverty line updated to 2021. It is now at $3 per day. This update was necessitated for mythological consistency, a closer connection with another related concept of poverty called the multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) and also to take cognisance of India's own improvement in the accuracy of collecting consumption data through an upgraded survey. (More about MPI as calculated by Niti Aayog later).

In non-technical terms, World Bank's extreme poverty means individuals having such a low income that it cannot even meet their basic needs of food, clean water, shelter and healthcare.