Poverty in India drops to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12: Planning Commission

Virtually sticking to its earlier controversial way of calculating poverty figures, Planning Commission said on Tuesday the number of people living below the poverty line has shrunk in both urban and rural areas.

The number of people living below the poverty line has shrunk to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.

According to the Planning Commission, in 2011-12 for rural areas, the national poverty line by using the Tendulkar methodology is estimated at Rs 816 per capita per month in villages and Rs 1,000 per capita per month in cities.

This would mean that the persons whose consumption of goods and services exceed Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs 27.20 per capita per day in villages are not poor.

Earlier, the Planning Commission had triggered a major controvery by saying anyone spending more than Rs 32 per day in urban areas was not poor. This criteria for fixing poverty line was criticised across the political spectrum as being unrealistic and unmindful of present day realities.

Planning Commission today gave out the poverty ratio using the same criteria saying the number poor in the country have shrunk in the past 7 years.

The Commission said that for a family of five, the all India poverty line in terms of consumption expenditure would amount of Rs 4,080 per month in rural areas and Rs 5,000 per month in urban areas. The poverty line, however, will vary from state to state.

State-wise, the Planning Commission said the poverty ratio was highest in Chhattisgarh at 39.93 per cent followed by Jharkhand (36.96 per cent), Manipur (36.89 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (34.67 per cent) and Bihar (33.47 per cent).

Among the union territories, the Dadra and Nagar Haveli was the highest, with 39.31 per cent people living below poverty line followed by Chandigarh at 21.81 per cent.

Goa has the least percentage of people living below poverty line at 5.09 per cent followed by Kerala (7.05 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (8.06 per cent), Sikkim (8.19 per cent), Punjab (8.26 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (9.20 per cent).