India’s rural poverty has shot up
Live MintEver since India moved to a high growth trajectory in the 1980s, poverty rates have consistently declined over time. A Mint analysis of the consumption expenditure numbers reported by the National Statistical Office in a hushed-up report suggests that rural poverty rose nearly 4 percentage points between 2011-12 and 2017-18 to 30 percent even as urban poverty fell 5 percentage points over the same period to 9 percent. Among large states, Bihar saw the greatest rise in poverty between 2011-12 and 2017-18, with poverty rate rising by a whopping 17 percentage points to 50.47 percent. The analysis is based on the inflation-adjusted state-wise poverty lines for rural and urban areas reported by the erstwhile Planning Commission in a 2013 note. The second assumption relates to the adjustment in the poverty lines based on differences in consumption figures, as reported by the mixed reference period and modified mixed reference period.