Latest statistics show that the number of people in India below the poverty line was down to 269 million or 21.9 % which account for one-fifth of the population. There has been a 15.3 percentage point decline in poverty rates over the seven year period from 2003-04. This is much better than the picture in the previous 11 years which witnessed an 8.1 percentage point decline. What has led to the fall in the number of BPL people? The impact of the high growth rate on the structure of employment and the sharp increase in wages contributed to it. The number of people engaged in agriculture has reduced by 27 million while total employment has gone up by 15 million. The new jobs have come up mostly in construction and service sectors. The shift from agricultural employment has been accompanied by a rapid increase in wages and it has led to the significant fall in the number of those under the BPL.
Growth has been speeded up in backward states like Odisha, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Regional inequalities have thus gone down. But all this does not sound reassuring to those who are skeptical about official claims on poverty alleviation. One-fifth of the nation-and that is a conservative estimate-do not even have a square meal a day, let alone other facilities which make up inclusive growth. Percentage points mean something miserably vague to them. Besides, the rising cost of living which does not go with a commensurate increase in income has reduced even the salaried middle classes to relative poverty. They also do not much care about the growth rate. There is no denying that equity is elusive in the Indian economy.
