Poverty

The World Bank in 2010, using its older 2005 methodology, estimated about 400 million people in India, as compared to 1.29 billion people worldwide, live on less than $1.25 PPP per day. The World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions in May 2014, to its poverty calculation methodology and purchasing power parity basis for measuring poverty worldwide, including India. According to this revised methodology, the world had 872.3 million people below the new poverty line, of which 179.6 million people lived in India. In other words, India with 17.5 Percent of total world s population, had 20.6 Percent share of world s poorest in 2013. According to a 2005 2006 survey,India had about 61 million children under the age of 5 who were chronically malnourished. A 2011 UNICEF report stated that that between 1990 to 2010, India achieved a 45 percent reduction in under age 5 mortality rates, and now ranks 46 in 188 countries on this metric.

Since the early 1950s, successive governments have implemented various schemes to alleviate poverty, under central planning, that have met with partial success.In 2005, Indian government enacted the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, guaranteeing 100 days of minimum wage employment to every rural household in all the districts of India.In 2011, this Rural Employment Guarantee programme was widely criticised as no more effective than other poverty reduction programs in India. Despite its best intentions, MGNREGA is beset with controversy about corrupt officials, deficit financing as the source of funds, poor quality of infrastructure built under this program, and unintended destructive effect on poverty.ther studies suggest that the Rural Employment Guarantee welfare program has helped in reducing rural poverty in some cases. Yet other studies report that India s economic growth has been the driver of sustainable employment and poverty reduction, but a sizable population remains in poverty.