India lifted an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, with the extreme poverty rate declining from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent, according to the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.
The report described India’s progress as “one of the fastest poverty declines in the world”, highlighting significant improvements in both monetary and non-monetary measures of poverty.
According to the World Bank, the proportion of people living below the lower-middle-income poverty threshold of USD 4.20 per day, measured at 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP), declined from 57.7 per cent in 2011 to 16.1 per cent in 2023.
The report attributed the reduction primarily to strong consumption growth, increased employment, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies.
The World Bank projected that poverty would continue to decline in the coming years, although at a slower pace. Its estimates suggest that the poverty rate at the USD 4.20-a-day threshold could fall from 14.2 per cent in 2026 to 12.1 per cent by 2028.
However, it cautioned that the projections are indicative, based on microsimulations, and could change as new labour market and macroeconomic data become available.
The report also highlighted substantial progress in reducing non-monetary poverty.
According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s Multidimensional Poverty Index, India’s poverty rate declined from 53.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 16.4 per cent in 2019-21. The World Bank’s multidimensional poverty measure stood at 15.5 per cent in 2022-23.
Despite these improvements, the report identified persistent regional disparities and employment-related challenges.
Around 57 per cent of India’s poor population remains concentrated in a contiguous belt extending from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal, underscoring the need to expand productive employment opportunities in these states to sustain poverty reduction.
Employment increased by approximately 134 million people between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the growth in the working-age population. Much of the increase was driven by rural women entering paid employment.
However, youth unemployment rose from 14.6 per cent in the first quarter of FY26 to 15.9 per cent in the corresponding quarter of FY27, with rural young women particularly affected.
The report also noted that real earnings remained broadly unchanged, while employment growth was largely concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities.
The World Bank cautioned that poverty estimates are based on household consumption surveys and that some recent improvements may reflect changes in measurement methods alongside actual gains in household welfare.
(ANI Inputs)
