The phrase ‘India is a poor country’ is an ubiquitous statement that most Indians have heard. This statement might have been true in 2016 when India had 125 million people living below the poverty line. However, India also has the fastest reduction in poverty rate (Brookings Report by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). The graph below is based on data taken from the World Poverty Clock, a web tool of the World Data Lab.
According to this graph, India is no longer has the largest number of poor people, as Nigeria is. I think we should take a moment to realise what an achievement this is. In 1997, 42% of India’s population was living in extreme poverty. Currently, that figure stands at 22% according to the Indian government and 23.6% according to the World Bank.
What does this mean?
Surjit Bhalla, senior India analyst, The Observatory Group, a New York-based macro policy advisory group, is of the opinion that the Brookings Report released by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation might be overly pessimistic for us as the report is based on data taken from 2011-12. In anticipation of data from NSSO 2017-18, Bhalla believes that India is probably doing much better than what the graph above shows. He is of the opinion that since India is no longer a poor country, a lower middle income poverty line must be adopted. Simply put, the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) should be changed from $1.9 to $3.2, according to the World Bank classification of poor and lower middle income respectively. A PPP of $3.2 is 68% higher than the poverty line value currently being used by the Government of India. In other words, a third of the population would just plummet from lower middle income to poor if the definition of poverty is changed.
This idea might seem strange and incomprehensible but one of the major problems about calculating poverty is that multiple methods can be used that yield differing results and can hence substantially change conceptions of people’s needs. However, this does not change the fact that overall, India is reducing the number of people below poverty line.
How did we do this?
According the 2017 Voluntary National Review Report on Implementation of SDGs, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is seen as a key scheme which has generated 2 billion person days of employment for unskilled rural labourers with women and disabled being the most benefitted from this. Other schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana has ensured other social security services to be properly implemented. The Right to Education Act of 2014 and its status of a Fundamental right has helped getting free access to education for a lot of the underprivileged children and has attracted them away from child labour and improve their socio economic conditions. There are numerous other plans like the Prime Minister Housing scheme, National Rural Drinking Water Program, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, etc have been instrumental in improving the condition of the poor.
So it’s all sunshine and rainbows?
The short answer would be, no. Between January 1, 2016—when implementation of internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) began—and July 2018, 83 million people have escaped extreme poverty. Assuming a linear trajectory, we should have already reduced the number of people in extreme poverty by 120 million, if extreme poverty were to fall to zero by 2030. This implies that we need to put in more effort to stay on track of SDG 1. i.e. no poverty.
In a multi-layer and complex society like India, poverty needs to be understood from a multi-dimensional perspective. The World Bank criteria measures “extreme” poverty based on the criterion of income while the multi-dimensional poverty index or MPI measures “acute” levels of poverty. It is premised upon the overlapping deprivation of basic needs i.e. health, education and living standards. In 2016, India had the second highest multidimensional poverty after Afghanistan. Since then, the government welfare schemes mentioned above have helped tackle India’s MPI by effectively targeting resources and policies.
Looking to the Future
Great strides have been made to reduce extreme levels of poverty in India however, in order to achieve Goal 1 of the SDGs by 2030, it is vital that in the fight against poverty, the urgent issues that need to be resolved are identified based on measurement and interpretation of appropriate data and results. This will entail the judicious use of available resources so that every rupee spent has maximum impact on development.
source https://www.indiaoutbound.org/indias-changing-poverty-narrative/
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