Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the government’s sustained policy efforts had yielded tangible results in reducing poverty and strengthening the foundations for inclusive growth and greater economic opportunity, citing the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.
“We remain committed to building on this progress through productive employment, stronger household incomes and effective delivery of public services, so that aspirations of our people are met,” Sitharaman said in a post on X.
Sitharaman highlighted the World Bank’s findings on poverty reduction, employment growth and improvements in household welfare.
The World Bank estimated that 496 million people had moved above the lower-middle-income poverty line of $4.20 per person per day between 2011-12 and 2023-24, with the poverty rate declining from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent. Extreme poverty, measured at $3 per day, fell from 27.1 per cent to 2.6 per cent over the same period. Both thresholds are based on 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP).
Business Standard reported on October 12 that India’s poverty rate, measured at the World Bank’s $4.20-a-day threshold, was estimated at 14.2 per cent in 2026 and projected to decline to 12.1 per cent by 2028.
Employment increased by 13.4 crore between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the increase in the working-age population, according to the report. Rural women accounted for much of the employment gain, entering paid work and increasing the number of earners in their households. Access to electricity had reached 99 per cent of the population, based on the report’s 2022 survey data. The World Bank identified strong consumption growth, rising employment, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies, as key drivers of poverty reduction. Faster welfare gains in rural areas also helped narrow the rural-urban gap. However, the World Bank expected the pace of poverty reduction to moderate over the coming years.
Despite the gains, poverty remained concentrated in rural India, where the poverty rate stood at 19.3 per cent in 2023, compared with 8.6 per cent in urban areas. A belt of states stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal accounted for around 57 per cent of India’s poor population. The report also flagged that real earnings had remained broadly unchanged despite employment growth, with job creation concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities.
