One-third of world’s poor is Indian

In spite of all the hype of the great growth story post-liberalisation period, about one-third of the all the poor people in the world lives in India. It means the fruit of economic benefits failed to trickle down to the poor, as India possesses a very high proportion of its population living on less than US$ 2 per day.

It has higher percentage of poor living on this money than even sub-Saharan Africa. As against India’s 828 million people, or 75.6 percent of the population living below US $2 a day, the Sub-Saharan Africa region, which considered the world’s poorest region is better with 72.2 percent of its population, i.e. about 551 million people below the US$ 2 a day level.

This revelation comes out of the World Bank’s latest estimates on global poverty. According to the report, India has 456 million people or about 42 per cent of the population living below the new international poverty line of US $1.25 per day. The number of Indian poor also constitutes 33 per cent of the global poor.

It is ironical to state that the rate of decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than between 1990 and 2005. Between 1990 and 2005, it declined to 41.6 percent, a drop of 9.7 percentage points over 15 years, clearly a much slower rate of decline. It means post-liberalisation, India has failed to arrest the growth of poverty. Not only it will give leaders, policy makers and economic think tanks a sleepless night, but it will also make them think of the future strategy on poverty reduction.

Though the full report is yet to be released, a briefing note sent by the World Bank shows that the poverty rate, i.e. those below US$ 1.25 per day for India has come down from 59.8 percent in 1981 to 51.3 percent by 1990 or 8.5 percentage points over nine years.

In February this year, the World Development Report of the World Bank revealed that greater investment in agriculture in transforming economies like India is vital to the welfare of rural poor. Titled ‘Agriculture for Development’, the report warns that the international goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 will not be reached unless neglect and underinvestment in the agricultural and rural sectors over the past 20 years is reversed. Over the years, agriculture in India has seen decline in investment, which is a matter of concern In India, it is to be noted, the current World Bank commitments in agriculture, irrigation and rural livelihoods amount to US $2.6 billion.

Writing in the Good Earth, the famous author, Pearl S Buck said that while she had seen enough poverty in China, but she saw even greater, grinding poverty in India, which was more painful. Continuing poverty is not only a great challenge for us, but also a worry that we have not done enough to reduce it in 61 years of existence.