NEW DELHI: The percentage of Indians living below the poverty line has fallen to 22 percent from 37 percent in just seven years, according to official data released yesterday, but the figures were dismissed by critics as “deeply flawed”.
Calculating poverty is a hugely controversial topic in Asia’s third-largest economy and the debate over the latest numbers could prove particularly heated as they come ahead of an election year in which the Congress government is seeking a third term.
The poverty rate fell by a robust 15 percentage points to 22 percent in 2011-12 from 37 percent in 2004-05, the figures from India’s influential Planning Commission showed.
While economic growth slowed last year to a decade low of five percent, the Congress government, in power since 2004, argues near double-digit expansion in previous years has driven a dramatic reduction in poverty in the country of 1.2 billion people.
The number of extremely poor people in absolute terms tumbled to 269.3 million in 2011-12 from 403.7 million in 2004-05, the commission said.
According to the commission, anyone with less than Rs33
(55 cents) to spend a day in urban areas and less than Rs27 a day in rural areas is counted as under the poverty line.
“These figures are deeply flawed and unrealistic about the actual conditions in the country,” Miloon Kothari, former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, told AFP.
“If you see the situation in the cities and villages it is quite clear there has not been such a huge reduction in poverty,” Kothari, now a leading Indian human rights activist, said. AFP
