The official estimate of Indias population below the poverty line was 35 percent in 1993-94.

TRENDS IN POVERTY IN INDIA

The rural poverty line, which would correspond to 2400 Kcal, is
Rs. 567 and the corresponding poverty ratio is 74.9%. Thus n

1999-2000, 74% of our rural population could not afford 2400

Kcal. The planning Commission in its approach to the 11th Five Year Plan (December 2006) states: Using the methodology of the Expert Group Estimation of Proportion and number of Poor in 1993, the percentage of population below the poverty line is provisionally estimated at 27.8 per cent in 2004-05. The estimated number of poor is now estimated to be

approximately 300 million in 2004-05.

Number and Percentage of population under BPL based on URP consumption (2004-05)
States Rural % of persons No. of persons (in lacs) 3.7 Urban % of persons No. of persons (in lacs) 2.2 Combined % of persons No. of persons (in lacs) 5.9

Jammu and Kashmir Punjab

4.6

7.9

5.4

9.1

15.1

7.1

6.5

8.4

21.6

Himachal Pradesh
Goa

10.7
5.4

6.1
0.4

3.4
21.3

0.2
1.6

10.0
13.8

6.4
2.0
CONTD..

Haryana Delhi Kerla Andhra Pradesh Gujarat Assam Rajasthan Tamil Nadu West Bengal

13.6 6.9 13.2 11.2 19.1 22.3 18.7 22.8 28.6

21.5 0.6 32.4 64.7 63.5 54.5 87.4 76.5 173.2

15.1 15.2 20.2 28.0 13.0 3.3 32.9 22.2 14.8

10.6 22.3 17.2 61.4 27.2 1.3 47.5 69.1 35.1

14.0 14.7 15.0 15.8 16.8 19.7 22.1 22.5 24.7

32.1 22.9 49.6 126.1 90.7 55.8 134.9 145.6 208.3

CONTD..

Karnataka

20.8

75.0

32.6

63.8

25.0

138.9

Maharashtra
Uttar Pradesh

29.6
33.4

171.1
473.0 175.7 27.1 103.2 71.5 336.7 151.8

32.2
30.6 42.1 36.5 20.2 41.2 34.6 44.3

146.3
117.0 74.0 8.9 13.2 19.5 32.4 26.7

30.7
32.8 38.3 39.6 40.3 40.9 41.4 46.4

317.4
590.0 249.7 36.0 116.4 91.0 369.2 178.5

Madhya Pradesh 36.9 Uttarakhand Jharkhand Chattisgarh Bihar Orissa 40.8 46.3 40.8 42.1 46.8

All-India

28.3

2209.2

25.7

808.0

27.5

3017.2

Note: States have been arranged in the ascending order on the basis of combined poverty ratio in 2004-05. Poverty line: Rs. 356.30 in rural areas and Rs. 538.60 in urban areas (per capita monthly expenditure)
CONTD..

The performance of India in terms of human development has not been satisfactory. According to the Human Development Report 2007-2008 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). India has been ranked 128 among 177 countries in the world based on the Human Development Index.
According to the UNDP Report, the poverty head count ratio at $ 1 per day based on the purchasing power parity as percentage of the Indian population was appalling at 34.7 per cent.

REGIONAL DISPARITIES IN POVERTY TRENDS

In a continental economy like India, it is more important to look at rends in poverty at a disaggregate level. The regional disparties are high. The incidence of rural poverty was well below the 15 per cent mark in respect

of states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Himachal

Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab whereas it was over 30 percent in respect of states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa and also to a certain extent the state of Maharashtra.

POOREST OF THE POOR

1. 63 percent of villages in India do not have pucca or allweather connecting roads. In some states, this is true of over 80 per cent of villages.

2. One half of all villages in india do not have proper soure of protected drinking water.
3. Overall, 88 per cent of all villages in rural India have a primary with in a villages but about a quarter of villages in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa do not have even a primary school. 4. Only about 22 per cent of all villages had a health subcentre within the villages. 5. Barely 10 per cent of all villages had reported development programmes being implemented by the NGOs.

CAN POVERTY BE ERADICATED ?

Grameen Bank was born in 1984, the bank has lent $ 6.3 billion to the marginalized community with 98.61 percent recovery rate. As per a survey of the Bank 64 per cent of its borrowers have crossed the poverty line. The four richest people in the world-Bill Gates (worth $ 46.0 billion), Warren Buffet ($36.0 billion), Karl/Theo Albrecht($25.6 billion), and Paul Allen ($22.0 billion) have combined assets of approximately $130 billion, which is more than the gross domestic product for India. The worlds resources are not equitably distributed among countries.

Poverty at individual and national levels cannot be eradicated like polio or small pox because it is implicated by our mental, physical, emotional, religious and cultural states of being.