India has recorded one of the world's fastest reductions in poverty over the past decade, with an estimated 496 million people moving out of poverty between 2011 and 2023, according to the World Bank's October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.

The report said the share of the population living in extreme poverty declined dramatically from 27.1 per cent in 2011 to just 2.6 per cent in 2023. Over the same period, the proportion of Indians living below the lower-middle-income poverty threshold of $4.20 per day, measured using 2021 purchasing power parity, fell from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent.

Describing the achievement as "one of the fastest poverty declines in the world", the World Bank said India had made substantial progress across both monetary and non-monetary indicators of poverty.

The Bank attributed the improvement primarily to strong consumption growth, rising employment levels, particularly among women, and the expansion of social support measures, including food subsidy programs.

The report noted that poverty is expected to continue falling over the coming years, although at a more gradual pace. World Bank projections suggest that the poverty rate at the $4.20-per-day threshold could decline from 14.2 per cent in 2026 to 12.1 per cent by 2028.

However, the institution stressed that these projections are indicative and based on microsimulation models. They may be revised as fresh labour market and macroeconomic data become available.

India has also made notable progress in reducing multidimensional poverty. According to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative's Multidimensional Poverty Index, the poverty rate declined from 53.8 per cent in 2005-06 to 16.4 per cent in 2019-21. The World Bank's own multidimensional poverty measure stood at 15.5 per cent in 2022-23.

Despite these gains, the report highlighted several structural challenges that continue to affect inclusive economic development.

Around 57 per cent of India's poor population remains concentrated in a contiguous belt stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal. The World Bank said that creating more productive employment opportunities in these states will be crucial if the country is to achieve further reductions in poverty.

The report also highlighted the strong performance of the labour market between 2017 and 2023. Employment increased by approximately 134 million people during the period, almost twice the rate of growth in the working-age population. A significant share of this increase came from rural women entering paid employment, strengthening household incomes and increasing the number of earners per family.

Labour market conditions have generally remained resilient. Nevertheless, youth unemployment rose from 14.6 per cent to 15.9 per cent between the first quarters of FY26 and FY27, with rural young women experiencing particular difficulties in securing jobs.

The World Bank also pointed out that real earnings have remained broadly unchanged, indicating that much of the employment growth has been concentrated in relatively low-productivity sectors.

Additional findings from the report suggest that wage inequality remains a concern despite the sharp fall in poverty. Median earnings among the highest-paid 10 per cent of workers were about 13 times greater than those of the lowest-paid 10 per cent in 2023.

The report further observed that poverty has increasingly become concentrated among households with lower levels of education, fewer productive assets, limited access to stable employment and higher dependency ratios.

While living standards improved across both rural and urban India, many of the households that remain poor are still located in rural areas, where productivity levels and access to higher-quality non-farm employment opportunities remain comparatively limited.

The World Bank cautioned that its poverty estimates are based on household consumption surveys and noted that some of the recent improvements may reflect advances in measurement techniques alongside genuine improvements in living standards and welfare outcomes.

Overall, the findings underline the scale of India's poverty reduction achievement during the past decade while also highlighting the importance of improving job quality, addressing regional disparities and creating higher-productivity employment opportunities if the next phase of poverty reduction is to be sustained.

ANI