To not be poor is glorious, rewarding

NITI Aayog has corroborated earlier findings by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that 135 million people were lifted out of multi-dimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21. UNDP had last year put the number at 140 million. Using the same methodology and basing itself on the National Family Health Survey data, NITI Aayog estimates the incidence of poverty fell from 24.85% of the population to 14.96% over the period. Bigger gains were made in villages, where the percentage declined from 32.59% to 19.28% than in relatively affluent towns, where the ratio fell from 8.65% to 5.27%. The fastest advances were made in the big poor pockets - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal - where over 90 million people escaped poverty as defined by intersecting deprivations in health, education, food, energy and housing parameters alongside income.

This is a direct fallout of improved outcomes in targeted welfare delivery through a host of GoI schemes. Flagship ones on nutrition, sanitation, housing and cooking fuel have seen sustained increases in resource allocation while delivery parameters have improved. More importantly, the pace of poverty eradication speeds up as incidence shrinks. It is administratively easier to lift 10 million people above the poverty line than, say, 100 million. India is on course of accelerating milestones, although per-capita income may not be keeping pace with the poverty ratio. So, the next halving of the poverty index will take much less than the five years it took to reach the current number.

So long as poverty eradication schemes are in place, the chances of people falling back into destitution are reduced, as evident from the pandemic years. India has faced reverses during Covid disruptions, with the World Bank estimating 56 million Indians may have been pushed below the poverty line. Although World Bank and UNDP measure poverty differently, the estimation of reverses provide guidance to policymakers over continuing support to specific schemes.