In a good news, people living below poverty line in India has come down by 15.3 per cent.

New Delhi, Feb 6/Nationalturk – In what depicts that India’s living standard is improving, people living below poverty line in India has come down by 15.3 per cent.

“As per the estimates of Planning Commission, the percentage of people living below the poverty line in India has come down by 15.3 percentage from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 21.9% in 2011-12,”  Indian Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Dr Girija Vyas informed Lok Sabha, the lower house of Indian parliament.

She said the percentage of people below the poverty line in India in 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7% in rural areas and 13.7% in urban areas.

Poverty in India widespread

Poverty in India is widespread, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world’s poor. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7% of all people in India fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 per day.

“The respective ratios for the rural and urban areas were 41.8% and 25.7% in 2004-05 respectively,” Girja said.

The minister said during the period 2004-05 to 2011-12, the decline in the rural poverty ratio is 16.1 percentage points which is higher than the 12 percentage points decline in the urban poverty ratio.

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