Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Western Bengal and Madhya Pradesh represented 65 percent of the country’s extreme poor in 2011-12 and contributed to two thirds of the general decrease in extreme poverty by 202223.
The World Bank has said that India has achieved significant progress in reducing poverty and employment growth has surpassed the population of working age.
In a report on ‘Charter of Poverty and Capital of India’, the multilateral agency said that extreme poverty (which lives in less than $ 2.15 per day) has fallen to 2.3 percent of the population in 2022-23 of 16.2 percent in 2011-12. With this, 17.1 million people have been taken from poverty.
In addition, he said that extreme rural poverty fell to 2.8 percent of 18.4 percent and urban to 1.1 percent of 10.7 percent reducing the rural-urban gap from 7.7 to 1.7 percentage points, 16 percent annual decrease. “India also made the transition to the lower minimum income category,” the report said. Using the poverty line of $ 3.65 per day (minor minimum income countries), poverty fell to 28.1 percent of 61.8 percent, lifting 37.8 million people out of poverty.
“Rural poverty fell from 69 percent to 32.5 percent, and urban poverty from 43.5 percent to 17.2 percent, reducing the rural-urban gap from 25 to 15 percentage points with an annual decrease of 7 percent,” he said.
The five most populated states, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, contain 65 percent of the country’s extreme poor in 2011-12 and contributed to two thirds of the general decrease in extreme poverty by 2022-23. Neverberness, “these states still represented 54 percent of the extremely poor of India (2022-23) and 51 percent of the multidimensionally poor (2019-21),” he said, he said.
In addition, the Gini index based on India’s consumption improved from 28.8 in 2011-12 to 25.5 in 2022-23, although inequality can be underestimated due to data limitations, according to the report. It should be noted that the Gini index is a measure of income inequality with the population, ranging between 0 and 1, where representatives of 0 perfect representatives and 1 representatives of perfect inequality)
“On the contrary, the world inequality database shows the secureity that increases from a Gini or 52 in 2004 to 62 in 2023. Salary disparity remains high, with the average gains of 10 percent higher are 13 times higher than the lower 10.”
Employment
Urban Unempleoyent fell to 6.6 percent in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014/25, the lowest since 2017-18. Recent data indicate a change of male workers from rural to urban areas for the first time since 2018-19, while rural female employment in agriculture has grown. However, the challenges persist as young inemployent is 13.3 percent, which increases to 29 percent among tertiary education graduates.
“Only 23 percent of non -agricultural unpaid jobs are formal, and most agricultural employment remains informal. Self -employment is increasing, especially among rural workers and women. Despite a female employment rate of 31 percent, gender disparities remain, with 234 million men more in the paid work,” he said.
Posted on April 24, 2025