GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF PLANNING
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4138
TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026
REDUCTION OF PEOPLE LIVING BELOW POVERTY LINE AND IN EXTREME
POVERTY
4138 DR. KANIMOZHI NVN SOMU:
Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:
(a) whether the total number of people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) and in extreme
poverty has reduced during the last five years, if so,...
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PLANNING RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 4138 TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026 REDUCTION OF PEOPLE LIVING BELOW POVERTY LINE AND IN EXTREME POVERTY 4138 DR. KANIMOZHI NVN SOMU:
Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:
(a) whether the total number of people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) and in extreme poverty has reduced during the last five years, if so, the details thereof;
(b) the details of methodology used for calculating BPL along with the numbers and percentage of BPL population; and
(c) whether Government has reviewed the methodology for poverty measurement in the country during the last five years, if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS & PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)
(a) to (c) In 2021, the Government of India developed a comprehensive index known as Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to measure poverty that captures overlapping deprivations in dimensions such as health, education, and standard of living covering 12 indicators. The index is based on the Alkire-Foster (AF) methodology.
The baseline report was published in November 2021 and the second edition of the National MPI report was released in July 2023. As per the report ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’, the proportion of individuals who are multidimensionally poor declined from 24.85% to 14.96% between 2015-16 and 2019-21, resulting in 13.5 crore individuals escaping multidimensional poverty during this period.
Page 1 of 2In January 2024, Government of India has released a discussion paper ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06’ capturing the estimates of multidimensional poverty from 2005-06 to 2022-
23. According to the discussion paper, India has registered a significant decline in multidimensional poverty from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23, resulting in 24.82 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty in the last nine years.
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