*World Bank Hails India’s Success in Lifting 171 Million People Out of Poverty in a Decade*
New Delhi: India has made remarkable strides in poverty reduction over the past decade, with 171 million people rising above the extreme poverty line between 2011-12 and 2022-23, according to a new World Bank report.
The report highlights a sharp fall in extreme poverty rates from 16.2% in 2011-12 to just 2.3% in 2022-23. Rural areas saw extreme poverty drop from 18.4% to 2.8%, while urban regions recorded a decline from 10.7% to 1.1%, significantly narrowing the rural-urban gap from 7.7 to 1.7 percentage points.
In its Poverty and Equity Brief, the World Bank also noted India’s transition into the lower-middle-income (LMIC) category. Measured against the LMIC poverty line of $3.65 per day, poverty levels fell dramatically from 61.8% to 28.1%, lifting a staggering 378 million people out of poverty.
The report further observed that rural poverty decreased from 69% to 32.5%, and urban poverty from 43.5% to 17.2%, reflecting a steady 7% annual decline in the rural-urban poverty gap.
The five most populous Indian states — Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh — played a major role, accounting for 65% of India’s extreme poor in 2011-12 and contributing to two-thirds of the nationwide poverty reduction by 2022-23.
Despite these gains, challenges remain. The report cautioned that these states still represent 54% of India’s extremely poor and 51% of the multidimensionally poor, as measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Notably, non-monetary poverty saw a significant decline from 53.8% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21.
The findings underscore India’s progress in tackling poverty while highlighting the need for continued focus on the country’s most vulnerable populations.
