Good News: India Sees Biggest Dip in Poverty?

Bangalore: Poverty has significantly declined in India, reveals the Planning Commission in its recent report. 8 percent of India has come above the poverty line in five years. The report suggests that the percentage of poor in India has declined from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 to 29.8 percent in 2009-10. The rural poverty has declined from 41.8 percent to 33.8 percent and urban poverty came down from 25.7 percent to 20.9 percent.


The plan panel defines the poor as the ones who spend less than 28 per day in urban areas and 22.5 in rural areas. These figures are lower than those in the year 2010-11, where 32 was in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas. The new estimates are on the basis of poverty line that averages Rs 672.8 per month in rural areas and Rs 859.6 per month in urban areas.


The data suggests that poverty ratio in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand has declined by about 10 percentage and more, while in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty has increased during 2009-10. In some of the bigger states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, there has been only marginal decline in poverty ratio, particularly in rural areas.

This is what I call moving goal posts to suit the government.
Considering an annual rate of inflation of 10% which is very nominal, the 2010-11 figure of RS 32 and Rs 26 should have been increased to Rs 35.20 and Rs 28.60. Instead they have reduced the figures to Rs 25.70 and Rs 20.90 by I don't know what jugglery.