Good News: India Sees Biggest Dip in Poverty

About 50 percent of agricultural laborers and 40 percent of other laborers are below the poverty line in rural areas, whereas in urban areas, the poverty ratio for casual laborers is 47.1 percent.  As expected, those in regular wage or salaried employment have the lowest proportion of poor.

It was noted that in the agriculturally prosperous states of Haryana, 55.9 percent agricultural laborers are poor, whereas in Punjab it is 35.6 percent. In Bihar, Assam, Orissa, Punjab Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal the Head Count Ratio (HCR) of casual laborers is very high.

Households with ‘primary level and lower’ education in rural areas have the highest poverty ratio, whereas the reverse is true for households with ‘secondary and higher’ education. About two-third households with ‘primary level & lower’ education in rural areas of Bihar and Chhattisgarh are poor, whereas it is 46.8 percent for UP and 47.5 percent for Orissa. A similar trend was seen in urban areas.

It was seen that households in rural areas, headed by minors have poverty ratio of 16.7 percent and households headed by female and senior citizen have poverty ratio of 29.4 percent and 30.3 percent respectively. In urban areas, it is 15.7 percent for minors, 22.1 percent for females and 20 percent for senior citizens.