While Indian political leadership is boasting of great Indian dream, a new survey from World Bank shows that 1/3 of world's poor are in India. The report has come as shock to those who think post-liberalization India has grown faster and there is richness everywhere and in every segment of society. The survey shows that India has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Also, 75.6% of the population of India i.e. 828 million people are living below $2 a day. Comparing the same with Sub-Saharan Africa which is considered the poorest in the world, they are better than India with 72.2% of its population falling under $2 a day level. The survey shows that decline of poverty in India was faster between 1981 and 1990 than between 1990 and 2005.

 

This time the poverty line is determined according to purchasing power parity (PPP), which is $1.25 PPP per day. The data show that more than four out of 10 Indians live below what the world’s poorest countries consider the poverty line. However, the trend has been global as poverty has grown up in developing world marginally from 2.5 billion to 2.6 billion since 1981.