New Delhi, Oct. 30 -- India lifted an estimated 496 million people out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, with the share of the population living in extreme poverty declining sharply from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent, according to the World Bank's October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.
The report said the proportion of people living below the lower-middle-income poverty line of USD 4.20 per day, measured at 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP), also fell from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent during the period.
Describing the progress as "one of the fastest poverty declines in the world", the World Bank said India had recorded improvements across both monetary and non-monetary measures of poverty.
The report attributed the decline mainly to strong consumption growth, rising employment, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies.
The report further said that poverty is projected to continue declining, albeit more gradually, with the poverty rate at the USD 4.20/day line expected to fall from 14.2 per cent in 2026 to 12.1 per cent by 2028.
These indicative microsimulation-based projections will be updated as labour market and macroeconomic data are revised, or new data becomes available.
In a post on X, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the World Bank identifies strong consumption growth, rising employment, especially among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies, as major drivers.
She said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government's sustained policy efforts are yielding tangible results, strengthening the foundations for inclusive growth and greater economic opportunity.
"We remain committed to building on this progress through productive employment, stronger household incomes and effective delivery of public services, so that aspirations of our people are met," Sitharaman said.
On the non-monetary dimensions, as measured by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), poverty fell sharply from 53.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 16.4 per cent in 2019-21, with the World Bank MPI measure at 15.5 per cent in 2022-23.
"This progress was mainly driven by strong consumption growth, rising employment, especially among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies," it said.
As poverty declined, it became increasingly concentrated among households with lower education, fewer assets, limited access to stable employment, and higher dependency ratios, the report said. Wage disparities, however, remain pronounced, as median earnings among the top 10 per cent of workers were about 13 times those of the bottom 10 per cent in 2023, it added.
Spatially, the report said India's poverty reduction story is one of both convergence and concentration. Households in both rural and urban areas experienced substantial welfare gains, with faster progress in rural India significantly narrowing the rural-urban gap.
"Yet many of the households that remain poor continue to live in rural areas, where productivity is lower and access to higher-quality non-farm employment opportunities remains more limited," it said, adding that poverty has also become increasingly concentrated geographically.
While living standards improved across most states, households in a contiguous belt stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal account for about 57 per cent of India's poor population.
As a result, further reductions in national poverty will increasingly depend on enabling productive employment in these states, the report said.
"Over the recent period, between 2017 and 2023, employment increased by about 134 million people, nearly twice the growth of the working-age population, with much of the gain driven by rural women entering paid work and raising the number of earners per household," the report said.
Labour market conditions continue to be broadly resilient, with labour force participation and employment rates stable between Q1 FY2026 and Q1 FY2027.
"However, youth unemployment rose from 14.6 to 15.9 per cent between the two quarters, particularly among rural young women. Moreover, real earnings remained broadly unchanged with employment growth concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities," it said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.