Every Third Indian is Poor: Tendulkar Panel

Every third Indian is living in poverty, according to the estimate of a government-appointed committee which said the number of the poor has shot up by more than 10 per cent to over 37 per cent.

The expert group, headed by former chairman of PM's Economic Advisory Council Suresh Tendulkar, in its report on poverty said 41.8 per cent of the rural population spend a meagre amount Rs 447 a month on essential necessities like food, fuel, light, clothing and footwear.

The situation is slightly better in urban areas, with 25.7 per cent being poor and they spend Rs 578.8 a month.

India's population is over one billion.

Among the states, Orissa and Bihar are the worst while Nagaland, Delhi and J&K have the least number of the poor.

However, according to the World Bank's estimates, 41.6 per cent Indians live on less than USD 1.25 a day, the international poverty line.

The World Bank in its report 'Global Economic Prospects for 2009' had projected that even by 2015, one-fourth of India's population will be living in extreme poverty.

The Planning Commission in its own estimates had pegged the poverty at 27.5 per cent. According to the Planning Commission's recent estimates, poverty in India came down from 35.97 per cent in 1993-94 to 27.54 per cent in 2004-05.

Although the Tendulkar report has estimated the poverty at 37.2 per cent against the Plan panels estimate of 27.5 per cent, it said the estimates are "not comparable" as the former is based on new basket of goods.

In Orissa 57.2 per cent of population live under poverty. The poor in rural Orissa spend just Rs 407.78 per month and in urban areas their spending is Rs 497.31.

In Bihar 54.4 per cent of the population poor.

In Madhya Pradesh over 48.6 per cent of people live below poverty line with a rural person in the state having only Rs 408 to spend on their various necessities in a month.

"The expert group has moved away from the calorie intake norm in view of the fact that calorie consumption calculated by converting the consumed quantities in the last 30 days as collected by NSS has not been found to be well correlated with the nutritional outcomes," the report said.

In fact, the rural head-count ratio as per the new methodology is also more at 41.8 per cent in comparison to 28.3 per cent, says the report.