The Congress party has sharply criticised the Modi government following the World Bank’s announcement that India’s extreme poverty rate dropped to 5.3% in 2022-23, down from 27.1% in 2011-12. This significant decline coincides with the World Bank’s revision of the International Poverty Line (IPL) from $2.15 to $3 per day (2021 PPP), a change that raises the threshold for measuring extreme poverty globally.

Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera argued that while the government is celebrating this drop, the $3 per day poverty line is “just enough to avoid starvation, but certainly not enough to live with dignity.” He contended that the revised methodology of the 2022-23 Consumption Expenditure Survey, conducted after an 11-year hiatus, makes direct comparisons with earlier UPA-era data statistically invalid and possibly misleading. Khera also accused the government of “burying” the 2017-18 survey to obscure the impacts of demonetisation and GST and of ignoring the effects of COVID-19 on poverty levels.

Khera further alleged that the government has evaded parliamentary scrutiny on defining an official poverty line, ignoring over 15 related questions. He claimed that the government’s assertion of lifting over 250 million people out of poverty is based on a “manipulated index,” pointing to alternative data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) which suggests that 621 million Indians (44%) still live in poverty. He also highlighted India’s low rankings on international indices: 105th on the Global Hunger Index (with 18.7% child wasting and 35.5% stunting), 118th on the World Happiness Report, and a Human Development Index score diminished by over 30% due to inequality.

The Congress argued that these “inconvenient data” points are systematically ignored by the government, leaving the poor to face inflation, unemployment, deteriorating public services, and declining quality of life. Khera summarised the situation as “the story of two Indias: One that suffers, and the other that cashes in,” accusing the government of enabling crony capitalism while neglecting the needs of the disadvantaged.

On the technical side, the World Bank’s report acknowledged that raising the poverty line to $3 per day—about 15% higher than the previous threshold—would typically increase global poverty counts. However, India was noted as a “statistical outlier in a positive direction,” as the country not only met the higher standard but also demonstrated a massive reduction in poverty, with the number of people below the poverty line dropping from 340 million in 2011-12 to 75 million in 2022-23.

While the World Bank’s updated figures indicate a remarkable reduction in extreme poverty in India, the Congress party contends that the government’s narrative is incomplete and ignores broader measures of deprivation and well-being, calling for a more nuanced and transparent assessment of poverty and inequality in the country.

Agencies