ADB defines Asian Poverty Line at $ 1.35 per day

Asian Development Bank (ADB) today released a new poverty line, called the Asian Poverty Line to measure the poverty in the Asia and Pacific region. The poverty line is roughly $ 1.35 per day.

This new measure is contained in ADB's annual statistical publication, "Key Indicators 2008".If this measure is used, roughly two-thirds of India's population or around 740 million are in poverty.

“While the $1-a-day poverty line remains an appropriate benchmark for counting the extent of extreme poverty in Asia, and the developing world more generally, in a region that has witnessed rapid economic growth it might also be time to evaluate poverty incidence using a benchmark that reflects the region’s dynamism,” says Dr Ali.

As per a World Bank study India has brought down the number of people living below one dollar a day by 2 percentage point to 24.3 per cent in three years up to 2005, as the Asia’s third largest economy accelerated to seven per cent plus growth in those years.

In absolute numbers, 9.6 million people have come out of poverty between 2002 and 2005, the largest decrease between two consecutive surveys released by World Bank since 1981. If $ 1.25 per day is taken as a benchmark for defining poverty line, then 4.7 million came out of poverty in above mentioned period.