India's poverty will fall from 51% to 22% by 2015: UN report

UNITED NATIONS/NEW DELHI: As many as 320 million people in India and China are expected to come out of extreme poverty in the next four years, while India's poverty rate is projected to drop to 22%, says a UN report.

The UN Millennium Development Goals Report, however, suggested that even though progress has been made in reducing poverty, Southern Asia continues to lag in terms of nutrition, sanitation and gender equality.

"In Southern Asia, however, only India, where the poverty rate is projected to fall from 51% in 1990 to about 22% in 2015, is on track to cut poverty in half by the 2015 target date," the report said.

Those living on less than $1.25 a day are considered poor.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi today, UN World Food Programme's representative and country director Mihoko Tamamura said, "Despite impressive economic growth in India in the last few years, inequalities persist among people based on class, gender and cast."

"If India does not meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the world will not...," she noted.

According to the report, China and India combined, the number of people living in extreme poverty between 1990 and 2005 declined by about 455 million, and additional 320 million people are expected to come out poverty by 2015.

By 2015, it is expected that global poverty rate will fall below 15 per cent, well under 23% target.