The number of poor Indians declined by 4.3 percentage points in the five years from March 2000 but there are still 24 crore people living in acute want in an economy that has grown at nearly 8 per cent over the period.A survey done by the Planning Commission showed on Wednesday that poverty as measured by the mixed recall period — a method in which consumer spending for items such as clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and health expenses are collected from a 365-day period — had declined to 21.8 in 2004-05 from 26.1 per cent in March 2000.The National Sample Survey report also reveals that the decline in poverty was comparatively much steep in rural areas where the percentage of people living below poverty line fell to 21.8 per cent in 2004-05, from 27.1 per cent. In urban areas, the proportion dropped to 21.7 per cent, from 23.6 per cent in the same period.In Delhi, a tenth of the population, or 16 lakh people, was living in penury.However, based on the uniform recall period (URP) method that collects consumption data using a 30-day recall period for all items, poverty fell from 36 per cent to 27.5 per cent over the 11 years beginning fiscal 1993-94.The report does mention that URP is a more precise method to measure poverty estimates across the country, whereas the data based on MRP cannot be used as a good yardstick to compare poverty estimates between time periods.Figures based on URP consumption show that in absolute terms, 30.17 crore people were living below poverty line — 22.9 crore in rural areas and 8.08 crore in urban areas in March 2005. Going by the MRP data for the more recent April 1999-March 2005 period, Orissa was the poorest state with 39.9 per cent living below poverty line, followed by Jharkhand (34.8 per cent) and Bihar (32.5 per cent).In absolute terms, the number of people living below poverty line was 4.58 crore in Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar (2.9 crore) and Maharashtra (2.6 crore). With 3.8 per cent people living below poverty line, Chandigarh was at the top.
