India Raises Poverty Estimate by 100 Million -- What It Means
"For years, critics have warned that official Indian government reports of dramatic reductions in the number of people living poverty grossly underestimated the real numbers, and that India's economic-growth story was not telling the whole truth. The report just released by India's Planning Commission raises the official number of people living in poverty in the country by 100 million, to a total of 400 million or more than one third of India's total population. Many believe this new number is still too low, even though it defines poverty in the barest possible terms: the ability to procure enough grain to meet a minimum daily caloric threshold. Facing a growing food crisis in the wake of a poor monsoon, the rapid disappearance of arable land to urban and industrial expansion, and a still growing population -- all of which have conspired to raise prices for basic foodstuffs dramatically, it seems the government of India has decided it would be more politically costly to risk excluding increasing numbers of the hungry from government subsidized grain programs than to shock foreign investors who've swallowed until now the story that India's strong economic growth is benefitting everyone, including the poor,” says Asia Society Associate Fellow Mira Kamdar. Mira is currently in Paris, where she is a visiting professor at Sciences Po.