India has one third of poorest , says World Bank

India has one third of world's poorest, says World Bank


One in three of the world's poorest people are living in India, the world's
second-fastest growing economy, according to a new study by the World Bank.









Indian men wake up at a night
shelter for poor and homeless people in New Delhi Photo: MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty
Images






By Dean Nelson, New
Delhi

2:06PM BST 18 Apr 2013





While new figures show that the number of those in
extreme poverty around the world - surviving on 82 pence per day or less - has
declined significantly, India now has a greater share of
the world's poorest than it did thirty years ago. Then it was home to one fifth
of the world's poorest people, but today it accounts for one-third - 400
million.


The study, The State of the Poor: Where are the Poor and
Where are the Poorest?, found the number of extremely poor people had
declined from half the world's population in 1981 to one fifth in 2010, but
voiced concern at its increase in Sub-Saharan Africa and continuing high level
in India.


World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said while the overall decline was
"remarkable progress", the remaining 1.2 billion people living in extreme
poverty was "a stain on our collective conscience." His colleague, World Bank
chief economist Kaushik Basu, who until last year was economic advisor to Indian
prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, said the figures called for the world's
wealthier countries to do more.










State of the Poor Paper April17




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"We have made strides in cutting down poverty, but with nearly one-fifth of
the world population still below the poverty line, not enough. Directing
investment towards the poor will require coordinated effort by the Bank, our
country partners, and the international development community; and will, let's
face it, entail sacrifice on the part of those who are fortunate enough to be
better off," he said.



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The scale of continuing extreme poverty in India, despite its economy nudging
growth rates of nine per cent in recent years, highlights what government
strategists have called its "ticking time bomb." Its population is expected to
reach 1.5 billion and become the world's largest nation by 2026 but its economy
is not growing fast enough to create the 20 million new jobs per year they will
need to prevent poverty increasing further.

Its problems are compounded by poor health services, child malnutrition and
inadequate education and training. Almost half of pupils drop out of school by
the age of 13 and only one in ten people have received any form of job training.


The perception of India as a fast-growing economy however has seen developed
countries significantly reduce their aid. The United States has announced a 16
per cent reduction while Britain has announced it will end its £280 million per
year aid programme.

Thomas Chandy of Save The Children said 200 million people had been lifted
from poverty in the last two decades but the recent economic growth had left one
third of the population untouched. "India's status has gone down despite the
economic growth, inequality has widened which makes the poor poorer. In child
mortality, infant mortality and maternal mortality, India seems to have the
largest populations in all these categories. We would like to see focused
interventions [because] the most difficult areas remain untouched," he said.