The World Bank has recently published a report {https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099722104222534584/pdf/IDU-25f34333-d3a3-44ae-8268-86830e3bc5a5.pdf) detailing the decline in poverty in India over the decade from 2011 to 2023 based on the analysis of data from the Consumption Expenditure Surveys and the Periodic Labour Force Surveys conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Government of India. The key results are as follows -
1. The proportion of population below the extreme poverty line consumption of US$3 per capita per day at the 2021 purchasing power parity rate of ₹20.7 per US$ has declined from 27.1% to 2.6% over the decade.2. The proportion of population below the lower middle income consumption of US$4.2 per capita per day has declined from 57.7% to 16.1%.
3. The proportion of population below the upper middle income consumption of US$8.3 per capita per day has declined from 93% to 80%.
The extreme poverty line consumption at ₹62.1 can be disregarded outright as being too low to ensure a dignified existence for a human being. The middle income consumption at ₹86.9 is slightly better but is still not enough to ensure a dignified livelihood with adequate nutrition, clothing, housing, education and health. So what has been designated as upper middle income consumption at ₹171.8 is a more suitable consumption level that can ensure a dignified existence for human beings in India. Assuming an average family size of 4 and a savings of 15% over and above the consumption expenditure this comes to a monthly rounded off family income of about ₹25000. However, 80% of the population in India still live below this consumption level according to the World Bank analysis. Therefore, to claim as the World Bank has done, that a substantial number of people have been lifted out of poverty by taking a very low consumption level as the poverty line, is fraudulent to say the least!!
Another interesting result of this analysis by the World Bank is that the employment generated during this period has been twice more than the growth in the working age population mainly because of a greater number of women, who are mostly unpaid, coming into paid employment. However, nothing is mentioned about the quality of this employment that has been generated, which we know to be very poor from other sources. A matter of concern is that unemployment among youth and especially among rural young women has increased and was as high as 15.9% in 2026.
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