what is the percentage of people living below poverty line in India?

Answer 1

According to this document:http://devdata.worldbank.org/AAG/ind_aag.pdf

the percentage is 29%.

Answer 2

someone already copied some excerpts from a statistical booklet. if you are asking for "the general opinion", my educated guess is that 50 p.cent live below the poverty line.in India like in other populated countries hidden unemployment is a fact of life. and what counts not the long statistics shown but really the perception the public and the world community has of India -- ie. poor, poor and very poor as not to feed the children going to school. the slums of Calcutta in view ....hope your question will correct both the reality and the perception.

Answer 3

In India's government, there is now a greater consciousness, of how caring for human resources, will lead to a sustainable growth. India appears to have agreed with this conclusion: the cold war was not between capitalism and communism; it was between man and the state and the winner was the former.

In the last few years, (when India's economy has begun to take-off, though not fly) some good numbers on poverty are beginning to come in. Enough to make one think, how swiftly things can change overall, if one were to focus on more investments in the social sector.

In the Economic Survey 2000 - 2001, published by the Ministry of Finance [the full report is available at the link below], 26.1% of Indians are reported to be impoverished.

For the country as a whole, the poverty numbers since 1973-74 have been diminishing:

Year All India,% Rural , % Urban, %
1973 54.9 56.4 49.0
1978 51.3 53.1 45.2
1983 44.5 45.7 40,8
1988 38.9 39.1 38.2
1994 36.0 37.3 32.4
1999 26.1 27.1 23.6

It is instructive to see in the following table, how the the rate of decline has accelerated since economic reforms began in 1990.

Between All India, % Rural, % Urban, %
1973 & 78 3.6 3.1 4.2
1978 & 83 6.8 7.4 4.4
1983 & 88 5.6 6.6 2.6
1988 & 93 2.9 1.8 5.8
1993 & 99 9.9 9.4 8.78

It must be admitted though, that the econometrics of poverty is a thicket of controversies. The debate is joined by politicians, economists, statisticians, bureaucrats and social activists. They question integrities, numbers and their interpretations. In India no one has done more to bring objectivity to this debate than Dr. Surjit Bhalla, of Oxus Research. Many of his papers on the subject are available at the link cited below. For lay purposes, it is sufficient to quote three statements by him in a draft paper called 'FAQ's on Poverty in India' [July 20, 2000]

Dr Surjit Bhalla concludes:

"No matter what the data source, survey or national accounts, growth is shown to lead to poverty decline, almost one for one. No growth, no poverty reduction is the only conclusion."

"It cannot be concluded that there was economic growth in India in the nineties, and that there was an increase in absolute poverty. There is no evidence for this joint conclusion." and

"...economic reforms initiated in 1991 have led to a radical transformation in the well being of the bottom half of the population. From an approximate level of 38 percent in 1987, poverty level in India in 1998 was close to 12 percent"

Before we leave the subject, let us cut the data available in another way: What is the distribution of poverty? We can see from the following table, it is not uniform across the country. A few states are terrible, but then, several others will rival countries of comparable size!

Poverty level below States
10% Goa, Haryana, Himachal, J&K, Punjab, Daman/Diu, Delhi
20% Andhra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Lakshadweep, Dadra/Nagar Haveli, Andamans
30% Maharashtra, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Pondicherry
40% Arunachal, Assam, MP, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, UP,
50% Bihar, Orissa

Answer 4

Official figures are massaged. In reality its above 75%

Answer 5

I don't believe the world bank.

It would be closer to 70%.

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India