New Delhi: India is winning the battle against poverty, according to official data.

The poverty ratio went down by 4.3 percentage points between 1999-2000 and 2004-05 with the estimated number of poor counted at 238.5 million, parliament was informed Thursday.

Quoting the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan told the Rajya Sabha that the poverty ratio in 1999-2000 was estimated at 26.1 percent and that it had come down to 21.8 percent in 2004-05.

Giving a break-up, the minister said the poverty ratio in rural areas fell from 27.1 percent in 1999-2000 to 21.8 percent in 2004-05. In the urban areas it fell from 23.6 percent to 21.7 percent in the same period.