100 million more Indians slide below the poverty line
19 Apr 2010
According to official estimates released on Sunday, the Indian population living below the poverty line has increased by 100 million over the 2004 figure.
The poverty rate has increased to 37.2 per cent of the population up from 27.5 per cent in 2004 which according to analysts would mean the Congress-ruled government would need to spend more money on the poor.
The new estimate comes within weeks after Sonia Gandhi, head of the Congress party, asked that the government revise a Food Security Bill for inclusion of more women, children and destitutes.
According to Abijit Sen, a member of the Planning Commission, the government had accepted the report on the poverty figures. He was speaking to Reuters and referring to the new estimate of poverty submitted by a government panel last December.
The government's poverty estimates are based on whether families can afford one square meal a day to meet minimum nutrition needs.
India is believed to be home to a third of the world's poor who live on less than $2 per day, worse than in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, experts say.
Even as the Indian economy recovers slowly from a global recession with a GDP growth of 7.2 per cent, millions of poor in rural India are left to struggle for food with around 17 per cent food price inflation.