Poverty in India.

Good news where it is/was/will be sorely needed

For a while, before real estate went belly-up, there was nearly global acclaim for how China’s economy has performed and how that has lifted so many people out of poverty. Far away from that spotlight has been a debate about poverty reduction in India.

Nearly everyone I know who had visited India had been profoundly impacted by the brazen display and shocking scale of poverty in India.

But we have some great new numbers, and there is some serious good news. India’s poverty reduction may be even better than most people know.

Here is a summary and then we’ll dive into a bit after the break.

1. India seems to have eliminated extreme poverty ( someone living in extreme poverty cannot afford to buy the most basic necessities for survival, such as food, shelter, clothing, and healthcare. This threshold is around $1.90 per day)

2. Increased household consumption in India has grown! Additionally, I’m compelled to highlight how this growth is particularly strong in rural areas (3.1%) compared to urban areas (2.6%)

3. The Government leaned into this problem and it helped. Quite a bit. Under Modi the world saw programs providing basic needs like toilets, clean water, and electricity in rural areas helping people remain healthy AND to allocate resources (time and money) more efficiently.

Extreme poverty is awful, eliminating it is good. Eliminating it in a country as populous as India is very good.