The Modi government has come under heavy fire from the Congress party when the World Bank revealed that India’s extreme poverty rate decreased from 27.1% in 2011–12 to 5.3% in 2022–23. This notable drop occurs at the same time that the World Bank raised the bar for determining extreme poverty globally by revising the International Poverty Line (IPL) from $2.15 to $3 per day (2021 PPP).
While the administration is applauding this decline, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera contended that the $3 daily poverty limit is “just enough to avoid starvation, but certainly not enough to live with dignity.” He argued that direct comparisons with previous UPA-era statistics are statistically inaccurate and potentially misleading due to the updated methodology of the 2022–2023 Consumption Expenditure Survey, which was done after an 11-year break. Khera further charged that the government ignored the effects of COVID-19 on poverty levels and “buried” the 2017–18 survey to hide the consequences of GST and demonetisation.
Technically speaking, the World Bank’s research recognized that increasing the poverty line to $3 per day—roughly 15% more than the previous threshold—would generally result in a rise in the number of people living in poverty worldwide. Nonetheless, India was referred to be a “statistical outlier in a positive direction” since it not only fulfilled the higher criterion but also showed a significant decline in poverty, with 75 million people living below the poverty line in 2022–2023 compared to 340 million in 2011–2012.
The Congress party argues that the government’s narrative is lacking and ignores broader measures of deprivation and well-being, despite the World Bank’s updated figures showing a remarkable reduction in extreme poverty in India. They call for a more nuanced and transparent assessment of poverty and inequality in the nation.