New figures show decline in India's poverty

Drawing widespread criticism, India on Monday claimed that there has been a sharp decline in poverty levels during the 2009-2010 period.

The Planning Commission in its latest report said more than 8% of India's population has come above the poverty line in the last five years.

"The all India head count (HCR) ratio has declined by 7.3 percentage points from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10," said an official statement.

Poverty ratio in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand has declined by about 10 percentage and more.

The data revealed that poverty has increased in north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland.

Bigger states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have shown only marginal decline in poverty ratio.

Among religious groups, data reveals that Sikhs have lowest poverty ratio in rural areas at 11.9 per cent, whereas in urban areas, Christians have the lowest proportion of poor in the country at 12.9 per cent.

In rural areas, poverty ratio for Muslims is very high in states such as Assam (53.6 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (44.4 per cent), West Bengal (34.4 per cent) and Gujarat (31.4 per cent).

In urban areas, poverty ratio at all India level is the highest for Muslims at 33.9 per cent. Similarly, for urban areas, the ratio is high for Muslims in states such as Rajasthan (29.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (49.5 per cent), Gujarat (42.4 per cent), Bihar (56.5 per cent) and West Bengal (34.9 per cent).

Among social categories, Scheduled Tribes face the highest level of poverty at 47.4 per cent, followed by Scheduled Castes at 42.3 per cent and Other Backward Castes at 31.9 per cent as against 33.8 per cent for all classes in rural areas.

The total number of poor in the country has been estimated at 34.47 crore in 2009-10, as against 40.72 crore in 2004-05.

The drop is attributed to higher spending on rural welfare programs in recent years.

The poverty line for 2009-10 has been pegged at Rs 29 per day per capita expenditure for urban population and at Rs 22 per day per person for rural population.

After widespread criticism over downgrading of poverty benchmark, the Planning Commission on Tuesday admitted of a serious flaw in the National Sample Survey data and national accounts.

"I do believe that the discrepancy between the consumer survey and national accounts, is a serious statistical problem," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said while answering questions on the quality of NSSO data.

On Tuesday, opposition members in the Rajya Sabha called the new benchmark a ploy to "deceive the poor".

"We want the government to tell us how a person can live on Rs 32 per day in urban areas and Rs 26 per day in rural areas," asked SS Ahluwalia, BJP's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.