“Based on recent fractile distribution, the sample proportion for poverty in rural areas is 7.15% and 4.62% in urban areas,” Ghosh said.
Poverty levels in India have witnessed a significant decline in the past decade and at an aggregate level it could now be in the range of 4.5-5%, State Bank of India said in a report on Tuesday.
The report has based its assessment on the recently released Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 factsheet by the statistics ministry.
The rural households MPCE has risen to Rs 3,773 in 2022-23 from Rs 1,430 in 2011-12, and urban households MPCE has grown to Rs 6,459 from Rs 2,630, as per the survey.
“The new estimates of fractile distribution of MPCE allows for estimating possible levels of poverty,” said Somya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI.
Starting with 2011-12 (Based on MRP consumption) poverty line estimate of Rs 816 in rural area and Rs 1000 in urban area, the new poverty line was adjusted for decadal inflation and imputation factor derived from NSSO report, the SBI report said. New estimated poverty line is Rs 1,622 in rural areas and Rs 1,929 in urban areas.
“Based on recent fractile distribution, the sample proportion for poverty in rural areas is 7.15% and 4.62% in urban areas,” Ghosh said.
Rural poverty has thus witnessed a significant 440-basis points (bps) decline since 2018-19 and urban poverty a 170-basis point decline. “This indicates that many government programmes currently for those at the bottom of the pyramid are having a significant salutary impact on rural livelihood.”
According to the World Bank estimates, poverty in rural India was at 11.6% in 2018-19 and in urban India, it was at 6.3%. In 2011-12, the Suresh Tendulkar committee had estimated rural India’s poverty at 25.7% and urban India at 13.7%.
Source:financialexpress.com