Friday, November 28, 2008

Poverty in India

Here is an article about poverty statistics for India. This is based on a revised poverty estimate by Ravallion and Chen.

The article estimates India's poverty according to both the $ 1.25 a day international poverty line and India's national poverty line of $ 1.00 a day (at 2005 PPP) to find that:

42 percent of the population were living below $ 1.25 in 2005 (24 percent below $ 1.00) as compared to 60 percent twenty-five years ago (42 percent below $ 1.00)

the number of people living below $ 1.25 rose from 421 to 456 million during 1981-2005

the number of people living in the 25 cent interval between $ 1.00 and $ 1.25 rose from 124 million to 189 million during 1981-2005

India's overall rate of poverty reduction during 1981-2005 according to both poverty lines was lower than the average for the developing world

India's share of poverty in the developing world outside China fell by just one percent since 1981

India's trend rate of poverty reduction during 1981-2005 according to both poverty lines is not sufficient to achieve MDG1 - particularly in the context of rising food and fuel prices.