Poverty down sharply from what it was 10 years ago: SBI Research report

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The past 10 years that coincide with the rule of the current regime at the Centre witnessed a fast reduction in poverty rates, a research report of the country’s largest bank, State Bank of India has said quoting the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HECS).

On February 27, the SBI Research report stated that rural poverty that stood at 25.7% in 2011-12 dropped to 7.2% in 2022-23 while urban poverty registered a decline from 13.7% to 4.6% in the same period.

The HECS is a significant study, the findings of which have immense contribution in policy making in the crucial macroeconomic segments of poverty alleviation projects, inflation etc.

A World Bank paper had said that in 2018-19 the poverty rate for India stood at 11.6% for rural areas and 6.3% for urban areas.

Significantly, in January this year, the Centre’s think tank NITI Aayog had published a report and claimed that as many as 24.82 crore Indians were lifted out of poverty in the past nine years. This, NITI Aayog said, was according to the multi-dimensional poverty index and that there was a decline in the poverty headcount ratio from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23. An official statement stated that all the dozen indicators showed improvements by a significant margin.

“Rural poverty has thus staged a significant 440-basis point decline since 2018-19 and urban poverty a 170-basis point decline post pandemic,” the SBI report said. The report inferred that government programmes directed at those at the bottom of the economic pyramid are leaving their impact on rural livelihood.

For its report, researchers of the SBI assumed that the poverty line would be at Rs 1,622 per head for rural India and Rs 1,929 for urban areas. The formula was offered by the expert group chaired by Suresh Tendulkar in December 2009. According to that committee recommendation, poverty line was fixed at Rs 816 for rural and Rs 1,000 for urban areas in 2011-12.

“Starting with 2011-12 poverty line estimate of Rs 816 in rural area and Rs 1,000 in urban area, the new poverty line was adjusted for decadal inflation and imputation factor derived from NSSO report,” SBI researchers said.

In 2014, an expert group headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan had calculated the poverty line and submitted its report.

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the survey results on February 24. It was the first survey in 11 years. The government had abandoned the survey done in 2017-18, arguing it had inconsistent data. The new survey coming a few weeks ahead of the general elections signalled that the gap between consumption in urban and rural areas is going down and that consumption inequality between the poor and rich families is shrinking.