Extreme poverty in India is 12.3 percentage points lower in 2019 than in 2011 as poverty headcount rate has declined from 22.5% in 2011 to 10.2% in 2019 with comparatively sharper decline in rural areas, a working paper of the World Bank policy research said.
The findings came close on the heels of a working paper published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) saying India has almost eradicated extreme poverty and brought down consumption inequality to its lowest levels in 40 years through state-provided food handouts.
Poverty reduction was higher in rural areas compared to urban India as rural poverty declined from 26.3% in 2011 to 11.6% in 2019, while in urban areas the decline was from 14.2% to 6.3% during the corresponding period, it said. “Rural and urban poverty dropped by 14.7 and 7.9 percentage points during 2011-2019,” said the World Bank’s working paper, ‘Poverty in India Has Declined over the Last Decade But Not As Much As Previously Thought’.
The paper is jointly authored by economists Sutirtha Sinha Roy and Roy van der Weide. The World Bank policy research working papers aim to encourage exchange of ideas on development and quickly disseminates the findings of research in progress.
