Recent data on Poverty in India

Below Poverty Line Population in (%)

Survey Year          Rural   Urban  Total

1993-94                       50.1       31.8       45.3

2004-05                       41.8        25.7      37.2

2009-10                       33.8        20.9      29.8

 States

Poverty ratio in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand has declined by about 10 percentage points more.

In Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty in 2009-10 has increased.

Some of the bigger states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have shown only marginal decline in poverty ratio, particular in rural areas. States with high incidence of poverty are Bihar at (53.5 per cent), Chhattisgarh (48.7 per cent), Manipur (47.1 per cent), Jharkhand (39.1), Assam (37.9 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (37.7 per cent)

Social Groups

In rural areas, Scheduled Tribes exhibit the highest level of poverty (47.4%), followed by Scheduled Castes (SCs), (42.3%), and Other Backward Castes (OBC), (31.9%), against 33.8% for all classes.

In urban areas, SCs have Head Count Ratio of 34.1% followed by STs (30.4%) and OBC (24.3%) against 20.9% for all classes. In rural Bihar and Chhattisgarh, nearly two-third of SCs and STs are poor, whereas in state such as Manipur, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh the poverty ratio for these groups is more than half.

Religious Groups

Sikhs have lowest Head Count Ratio in rural areas (11.9%) whereas in urban areas, Christians have the lowest proportion (12.9%) of poor. In rural areas, the Head Count Ratio for Muslims in very high in states such as Assam (53.6%), Uttar Pradesh (44.4%), West Bengal (34.4%) and Gujarat (31.4%). In urban areas poverty ratio at all India level in highest for Muslims (33.9%). Similarly, for urban areas the poverty ratio is high for Muslims in states such  as Rajasthan (29.5%), Uttar Pradesh (49.5%), Gujarat (42.4%), Bihar (56.5%) and West Bengal (34.9%)

Occupational Categories

Nearly 50% of agricultural labourers and 40% of other labourers are below the poverty line in rual areas, whereas in urban areas, the poverty ratio for casual labourers is 47.1%. Those in regular wage/salaried employment have the lowest proportion of poor. In the agriculturally prosperous state of Haryana, 55.9% agricultural labourers are poor, wheareas in Punjab t is 35.6%. The HCR of casual labourers in urban areas is very high in Bihar (86%), Assam (89%), Orissa (58.8), Punjab (56.3%), Uttar Pradesh (67.6%) and West Bengal (53.7%).

Highlights

1. Only about 46% of household have toilet facilities
2. As per the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey for 2009-10, 29.9 per cent of the population is under BPL
3.  Rural poverty declined by 8 percentage points, urban poverty down by 4.8 per cetn
4.  Poverty has gone up in the north-eastern States of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland
5.  Bihar has the highest incidence of poverty at 53.5 per cent.
6.  Among social groups in the rural areas, Scheduled Tribes (47.4 per cent) suffer the highest level of poverty.
7.  Among social groups in the urban areas, Scheduled Castes (34.1 per cent)suffer the highest level of poverty.
8.  Among religious groups in the rural areas, Sikhs have the lowest level of poverty at 11.9 per cent
9.  Among religious groups in the urban areas, Christians have the lowest level of poverty at 12.9 per cent
10.  Both in rural and urban areas, Muslims have a high level of poverty ranging from 29 per cent to 53 per cent
11. Just 32% of households use treated water for drinking
12. About 17% of the households still fetch drinking water from a source located more than 500 m in rural areas 100 m in urban areas
13. About 11% more households have got access to electricity between the years 2001 and 2011.
14. About 45% households owns a cycle which remains the primary mode of transportation. 

• Poverty - Types and Indicators

1. Poverty can be of different types like absolute poverty and relative poverty. There may be many other classifications like urban poverty, rural poverty, primary poverty, secondary poverty and many more. Whatever be the type of poverty, the basic reason has always been lack of adequate income. Here comes the role of unemployment behind poverty.

   Lack of employment opportunities and the consequential income disparity bring about mass poverty in most of the developing and underdeveloped economies of the world.

   Absolute Poverty

   Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the later being actually an index of income inequality). Absolute poverty refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries.

   The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1.25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $ 2 a day (but note that a person or family with access to subsistence resources, e.g. subsistence farmers, may have low cash income without a correspondingly low standard of living - they are not living on their cash income but using it as a top up). It estimates that in 2001, 1.1 billion people had consumption level below 1$ a day and 2.7$ billion lived on less than $2 a day.

   Relative Poverty

   Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other income inequality metrics, for example for Gini coefficient or the Theil Index.

   Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics  measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the OECD and the European Union is based on 'economic distance' a level of income is set at 60% of the medial household income. 

   Multidimensional Poverty Index

   The multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed in 2010 ny Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Program. The MPI is an index of acute multidimensional povety. It reflects deprivations in very rudimentary services and core human functioning for people across 104 countries. Although deeply constrained by data limitations, MPI reveals a different pattern of poverty than income poverty, as it illuminates a different set of deprivations.

   The MPI has three dimensions - health, education, and standard of living. These are measured using ten indicators. Each dimension and each indicator within a dimension is equally weighted.

   
   

   These 10 indicators are used to calculate the MPI:

   Education (each indicator is weighted equally at 1/6)

   • Years of Schooling - Deprived if no household member has completed five years of schooling.
   • Child Enrollment - Deprived if any school aged child is not attending school in years 1 to 8.

   
   

   Health (each indicator is weighted equally at 1/6)

   • Child Mortality - Deprived if any child has died in the family
   • Nutrition - Deprived if any adult or child for whom there is nutritional information is malnourished.

   
   

   Standard of Living (each indicator is weighted equally at 1/18)

   • Electricity - Deprived if the household has no electricity.
   • Sanitation - Deprived if they do not have an improved toilet or if their toiled is shared (MDG Definition).
   • Drinking Water - Deprived if the household does not have access to clean drinking water or clean water is more than 30 minutes walk from home (MDG Definition).
   • Floor - Deprived if the household has dirt, sand or dung floor.
   • Cooking Fuel - Deprived if they cook with wood, charcoal or dung.
   • Assets - Deprived if the household does not own more than one of radio, TV, telephone, bike or motorbike.

   
   

   A person is considered poor if they are deprived in at least 30% of the weighted indicators. The intensity of poverty denoted the proportion of indicators in which they are deprived.