Mint Quick Edit | Poverty isn’t widespread but prosperity needs to be

Latest World Bank figures point to a sharp decline in the ratio of extreme poverty in India. It fell to 5.3% in 2022-23 from 27.1% in 2011-12, with 269 million individuals lifted out of such indigence during that period. 

Also Read: Himanshu: India needs official poverty data for effective policymaking

By this measure, based on the $3-per-day international poverty line (at 2021 prices), India’s number of extremely poor stood at about 75.24 million in 2022-23, a sharp drop from 344.47 million just over a decade earlier. Even on multidimensional poverty, World Bank data shows a notable decline to 15.5% in 2022-23 from 53.8% in 2005-06. 

Also Read: India must redraw its poverty line to reflect economic progress

These findings are welcome. Grinding poverty is nearing an end and should reach a negligible level soon. The challenge, increasingly, is to relieve our multitudes from deprivations that don’t classify people as extremely poor, but do result in their leading hardscrabble lives in comparison with folks in the middle class. 

Also Read: The uphill battle against poverty

While it’s heartening that our economic development and policy efforts have assured large numbers relatively dignified lives, we also need our vast population to form huge consumer markets. The humanitarian imperative is not all there is to it. The economy needs prosperity that’s widely distributed.

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