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India lifted an estimated 496 million people out of extreme poverty between 2011 and 2023, with stronger consumption growth, rising employment, particularly among women, and expanded food subsidies driving the decline, according to the World Bank.
India has recorded one of the fastest declines in poverty globally, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of extreme poverty between 2011 and 2023, according to the World Bank’s October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief.
The share of India’s population living in extreme poverty fell sharply from 27.1 per cent in 2011 to 2.6 per cent in 2023, marking a significant improvement in the country’s poverty indicators.
The decline was also visible at the lower-middle-income poverty threshold of $4.20 per day, measured at 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP). The proportion of people living below this threshold dropped from 57.7 per cent to 16.1 per cent during the same period.
Describing the progress as “one of the fastest poverty declines in the world”, the World Bank attributed the improvement primarily to strong consumption growth, rising employment, particularly among women, and expanded social transfers, including food subsidies.
India’s poverty levels are expected to decline further over the coming years, although at a slower pace.
The World Bank’s projections suggest that poverty at the $4.20-a-day threshold could fall from 14.2 per cent in 2026 to 12.1 per cent by 2028.
More from BusinessHowever, the multilateral institution cautioned that these are indicative estimates based on microsimulations and could change as fresh labour market and macroeconomic data become available.
Multidimensional poverty also declines
India has also registered substantial improvements in non-monetary poverty indicators.
According to the report, the poverty rate measured through the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative’s Multidimensional Poverty Index 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, reflecting improvements in living standards beyond income and consumption.
Despite the substantial progress, the World Bank flagged continuing regional and employment-related challenges.
Around 57 per cent of India’s poor population remains concentrated in a contiguous geographical belt stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal. The report highlighted the importance of generating productive employment opportunities across these states to sustain poverty reduction.
India added approximately 134 million people to its employed workforce between 2017 and 2023, nearly twice the increase in its working-age population. A substantial share of this employment growth came from rural women entering paid work.
However, the report also pointed to emerging concerns in the labour market. Youth unemployment increased from 14.6 per cent to 15.9 per cent between the first quarters of FY26 and FY27, with rural young women particularly affected.
Real earnings also remained broadly unchanged, while employment growth was concentrated in relatively low-productivity activities.
The World Bank further noted that poverty estimates are based on household consumption surveys. It cautioned that some of the recent improvement could reflect changes in measurement alongside genuine gains in household welfare.
The findings underline India’s considerable progress in reducing poverty while highlighting the need to address regional inequalities, improve employment quality and raise real earnings to sustain the gains.
