Priyanka Kishore

“The way a middle income country thinks about its poverty challenge is different from how a poor country does.” In his latest article for Mint, Dr. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha (@CafeEconomics ), Executive Director at Artha Global, examines what the World Bank’s latest poverty estimates reveal about the changing nature of poverty in India. While extreme poverty has fallen sharply, the figures also point to the need for a higher poverty benchmark and a more targeted approach to addressing the deprivations that remain. Key insights from the article: - India needs to raise its poverty benchmark: With extreme poverty declining, the $4.2-a-day international poverty line is now more relevant for measuring India’s progress than the lower $3-a-day threshold. India also needs an updated domestic poverty line. - Poverty is increasingly concentrated in specific regions and forms of deprivation: The Gangetic belt accounts for a disproportionate share of poverty, while inadequate sanitation remains a major dimension of multidimensional deprivation. - Poverty is becoming more transient, calling for a different social protection response: Many households are pushed below the poverty line by sudden shocks such as illness, climate disruptions or debt repayments, making insurance, credit relief and timely income support increasingly important. India’s poverty challenge has not disappeared; it has changed. As the country moves towards middle-income status, measuring and addressing poverty will require benchmarks and policy responses that reflect this new reality. Read the full article: artha.global/op-ed/opinion-t…