India’s Poverty Rates Will Drop by Half by 2015..!

India was able to reduce its poverty rate from 49% in 1994 to 42% in 2005 and 33% in 2010.

World Poverty Day October 17

India is on the right track to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, the UN’s new Millennium Development Goals Report 2013 notes.

However, the achievements seen across the world in reducing poverty levels have not been replicated in all other goals.

The report, launched on recently, finds that India was able to reduce its poverty rate from 49% in 1994 to 42% in 2005 and 33% in 2010.

Highlights of UN’s new Millennium Development Goals Report 2013

 a If the current pace continues, India will meet the poverty reduction target by 2015.

aExtreme poverty has been defined as living below $ 1.25 per day per person. The global goal of reducing extreme poverty by half was achieved by 2010, 5 years before the deadline.

a The deadline for the millennium development goals, which includes targets on poverty, hunger, health, gender equality, education & environmental indicators, will end in 2015.

a South Asia has done well in reducing poverty, it has not done so well in reducing hunger. While in 1990, 27 % of the population in the region was undernourished, by 2010 - 12, the figure came down to 18 %. At nearly the 13.5 %, the target of halving the number of people suffering from hunger is still some distance away.

a The pace of change in Caribbean, Southern Asia (which includes India), and, especially, Sub-Saharan Africa & Oceania appears to be too slow to meet the MDG target.

a The study finds that above 100 million children under five are still undernourished and underweight. This means, globally, one in six children are underweight and a quarter are stunted. However, South - East Asia has already met its target in reducing hunger.

a In getting children to school the South Asia region has done significantly well, where enrolment in primary school has increased from 78% to 93% between 2000 & 2011. As a result, the number of out-of-school children in the region has plummeted to 1.2 crore in 2011 from 3.8 crore in 2000.

Share: