“Total impoverishment in India has decreased to 5%.”

Based on data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, 2022–2023—NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said that the percentage of impoverished Indians is now less than 5%.

Subrahmanyam revealed an overview of a survey report on spending and consumption. According to the study conducted by NITI Aayog, the monthly per capita consumer spending of India’s poorest five percent was Rs 2,087 in urban areas and Rs 1,441 in rural regions. “This data gives me confidence in this,” the head of NITI Aayog said.

He noted that although this does not imply that Indians are suddenly better off, it does suggest that the percentage of people who live in complete poverty has dropped to fewer than 5%.

According to Subrahmanyam, the figures are supported by the fact that, when the survey data is extrapolated from the Tendulkar Committee’s previous report, it reveals that fewer than 5% of India’s population is still impoverished.

The Tendulkar Committee report, which was turned in at the end of 2009, suggested recalculating the rural poverty line such that it reflected the same money value of the same consumption basket in rural regions as it does in urban ones. By using this, the 2004–05 rural poverty headcount ratio was calculated to be 41.8%, the urban poverty ratio to be 25.7%, and the overall poverty ratio to be 37.2% for all of India.

24.82 crore people have emerged from multidimensional poverty in the past nine years, according to NITI Aayog, thanks to government programmes like Poshan Abhiyan and Anaemia Mukt Bharat as well as efforts to address all aspects of poverty.