Country also has most under-five deaths worldwide.
By Kevin Manuel
WASHINGTON, DC: India’s extreme poor population is the highest in the world, says a new report by the United Nations.
The UN Millennium Development Goals 2014 report has revealed that India is both home to one third of the world’s extreme poor population and also the highest number of under-five deaths worldwide.
The report will come as a rallying call to the government under Narendra Modi, as Minority Affairs minister Najma Heptulla, who released the U.N. report in India, revealed the extent of the report which showed that India was found lacking in the four areas of poverty, infant deaths, maternal deaths and sanitation.
Specifically, the report stated, “In 2010, one-third of the world’s 1.2 billion extreme poor lived in India alone.” The report is a strong reminder of the challenges facing the world’s largest democracy, but unfortunately, is not something that comes as a surprise.
Findings by an Indian panel, led by former chairman of the prime minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Chakravarthi Rangarajan, found that in 2011-2012, about one third of India’s population, about 363 million, was living in poverty. This number is based on India’s own conservative estimation of what it means to be poor. The Rangarajan report used the baseline of daily spending capacity of 32 rupees in rural and 47 rupees urban areas to define poverty. However, the international poverty line, as defined by the World Bank and the United Nations, is about 75 rupees a day, or a US $1.25.
The report also found that China is the world leader in global poverty reduction, with extreme poverty plummeting from 60 percent in 1990 to 16 percent in 2005. China’s extreme poor population stood at about 13 per cent in 2010, followed by Nigeria at 9 per cent, and Bangladesh at 5 per cent. India will seek to follow in China’s footsteps in curtailing poverty, but this is just one of four points where India was found to be lacking.
The U.N. report also stated that India had the highest number of under-five deaths in the world in 2012, with 1.4 million children dying before reaching their fifth birthday. This is in contrast to the worldwide mortality rate for children under five, which dropped by 50 per cent in 2012.
Sanitation is another area that India was found wanting. Long known for having the largest population without access to proper toilets, the report found that 60 per cent of people who defecate in public are in India. Finally, the report stated that 17 per cent of global maternal deaths occur in India.
Although much of the findings were region specific to South Asia, India was explicitly found in want as the largest nation of South Asia, which scored low on numerous parameters on the U.N. report.