New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday highlighted that the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty & Equity Brief records India’s progress as one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.
The report states that several significant gains, including 49.6 crore people moving above the lower-middle-income poverty line of $4.20 a day between 2011 and 2023, with the poverty rate declining from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent, the Finance Minister said.
Extreme poverty declined from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent over the same period, measured at $3 a day. Both monetary poverty thresholds use 2021 purchasing power parity.
Employment increased by 13.4 crore people between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the increase in the working-age population. Rural women accounted for much of the employment gain, entering paid work and increasing the number of earners in their households. Both rural and urban households experienced substantial welfare gains, with faster progress in rural India narrowing the rural–urban gap, according to the report.
Access to electricity reached 99 per cent of the population, according to the report’s 2022 survey data.
The World Bank identifies strong consumption growth, rising employment — especially among women — and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies, as major drivers.
The Finance Minister said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government’s sustained policy efforts are yielding tangible results, strengthening the foundations for inclusive growth and greater economic opportunity.
“This is the reason why NDA govt wins people’s trust and mandate of our citizens. We remain committed to building on this progress through productive employment, stronger household incomes and effective delivery of public services, so that aspirations of our people are met,” she added.
The World Bank report states that over the past decade, India has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty across both monetary and non-monetary dimensions, recording one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.
Poverty is projected to continue declining, albeit more gradually, with the poverty rate at the $4.20/day line expected to fall from 14.2 per cent in 2026 to 12.1 per cent by 2028. These indicative microsimulation-based projections will be updated as labour market and macroeconomic data are revised, or new data becomes available, the report states.
On the non-monetary dimensions, as measured by OPHI’s MPI, poverty fell sharply from 53.8 per cent in 2005–06 to 16.4 per cent in 2019–21, with the World Bank MPI measure at 15.5 per cent in 2022–23. This progress was mainly driven by strong consumption growth, rising employment, especially among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies.
As poverty declined, it became increasingly concentrated among households with lower education, fewer assets, limited access to stable employment, and higher dependency ratios.
Wage disparities, however, remain pronounced, as median earnings among the top 10 per cent of workers were about 13 times those of the bottom 10 per cent in 2023, the report added.
(IANS)
