NEW DELHI, India / AsiaWire.IO / – India’s extreme poverty rate plunged from 27.1% to 2.6% between 2011 and 2023, lifting an estimated 496 million people out of poverty, the World Bank said in its October 2026 Poverty and Equity Brief. The Bank called it “one of the fastest poverty declines in the world.” Progress was recorded across both monetary and non-monetary measures. The findings underline the scale of India’s social and economic transformation over the past decade.
At the lower-middle-income line of $4.20 a day, measured in 2021 purchasing power parity terms, the poverty rate dropped from 57.7% to 16.1%. The World Bank attributed the decline mainly to strong growth in household consumption and rising employment, especially among women. It also pointed to expanded social transfers, including food subsidies. These drivers helped households across rural and urban India climb above the poverty line.
Non-monetary indicators tell a similar story. The multidimensional poverty rate measured by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative fell from 53.8% in 2005-06 to 16.4% in 2019-21. The World Bank’s own multidimensional measure stood at 15.5% in 2022-23. Such measures capture deprivations in health, education and living standards, including access to clean water, sanitation and electricity.
Modi’s welfare push reaches millions
Since taking office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made welfare delivery at scale a central pillar of policy. Free food grains reach about 800 million people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which was extended in 2024 for five years. More than 500 million bank accounts have been opened under the Jan Dhan scheme. Subsidies are now paid directly into beneficiaries’ accounts.
Digital public infrastructure has transformed everyday life. The Unified Payments Interface processes billions of transactions each month, making India a world leader in real-time payments. Millions of households have gained toilets, cooking gas connections and homes under Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Together, these programs target many of the deprivations measured in multidimensional poverty indices.
Growth keeps India in the global top five
India remains one of the world’s five largest economies and among the fastest-growing major ones. GDP expanded 7.8% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026-27, and the IMF has raised its 2026 growth forecast to 7%. The IMF expects India to overtake Japan in 2027 to become the fourth-largest economy, with output of $4.52 trillion. The government’s long-term goal is a developed India by 2047.
Initiatives such as Make in India and production-linked incentives aim to deepen manufacturing and generate jobs. India has also gained a stronger voice abroad, hosting the G20 in 2023, landing Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon’s south pole and chairing BRICS in 2026, when it hosted the bloc’s parliamentary forum. The government has contrasted this momentum with slower progress in previous decades. Supporters say the World Bank data supports that view.
Jobs remain the next challenge
The World Bank expects poverty to keep falling, but more gradually. Its projections show the share of people below $4.20 a day falling from 14.2% in 2026 to 12.1% by 2028, though it cautioned that these microsimulation estimates could change. About 57% of India’s poor live in a belt stretching from Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal. Creating productive jobs in these states will be key to further progress.
Employment grew by about 134 million between 2017 and 2023, nearly double the growth of the working-age population, as many rural women entered paid work. Youth unemployment, however, rose from 14.6% to 15.9% between the first quarters of FY26 and FY27, particularly among rural young women. Real earnings were broadly unchanged. The World Bank also noted that part of the recent gains may reflect better measurement.