Third of Indians were poor in 2009-10

The government’s inclusive growth agenda is yielding results, albeit too slowly as around 31.1 million people moved out of poverty during the period 2004-05 and 2009-10. A new methodology to estimate poverty also raised the number of people living below poverty line.

Initial estimates of the Planning Commission, based on the Tendulkar Committee report on methodology of poverty estimation, shows poverty has gone down from 37.20 per cent in 2004-05 to 32 per cent in 2009-10.

This means a third of India’s population is living below poverty even during 2009-10. The number of people below poverty line declined from 405.5 million during 2004-05 to 374.4 million people during 2009-10.

This is based on population of 1.09 billion taken by the Central Statistical Organisation while calculating national income during 2004-05, which increased to 1.17 billion during 2004-05.

“My colleagues Abhijit Sen has done some assessment on poverty that shows, on an overall basis, it (poverty) has dropped from 37.2 per cent to 32 per cent,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters here today.