Economy · Sub-pillar 4.2
Poverty and inequality
Ending extreme poverty, ensuring food security, narrowing the gap between the richest and the poorest, and protecting those who fall behind through effective social support.
What is poverty and inequality?
Poverty and inequality is sub-pillar 4.2 of the 47 BH framework for a developed Bharat by 2047, the second of nine sub-pillars under the Economy pillar. It asks whether India has ended extreme poverty, whether everyone has enough to eat, how wide the gap between the richest and the poorest has become, and whether those who fall behind are caught by effective social support.
Why it matters for 2047
A country is not developed while any of its people go hungry or live on the edge of destitution, whatever its average income. The end of extreme poverty is the first promise of development, and India is closer to keeping it than at any time in its history.
Inequality is the second question, and a harder one. Growth that lifts the poorest a little while lifting the richest enormously can leave a country richer and more divided at once. 47 BH measures both the floor and the gap, because a developed Bharat has to be one its poorest citizens can recognise as theirs.
Social support is the safety net under both. Food rations, pensions, employment guarantees and cash transfers decide whether a bad harvest, an illness or a lost job becomes a temporary setback or a permanent fall.
Where India stands
- 5.3%
of Indians lived in extreme poverty in 2022-23 on the World Bank's US$3.00-a-day line, down from 27.1% in 2011-12; about 7.5 crore people, compared with 34 crore a decade earlier.[1]
- 23.9%
lived below the higher lower-middle-income poverty line of US$4.20 a day in 2022-23, as reported in the Economic Survey from World Bank data.[2]
- 0.237
was the Gini coefficient of rural consumption in 2023-24 (0.284 urban), down from 0.266 and 0.314 the year before, according to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey; the urban-rural spending gap narrowed to 70%.[3]
- 57.7%
of national income went to the top 10% of earners in 2022-23, and 22.6% to the top 1%, according to the World Inequality Lab's estimates; the top 1% held 40.1% of wealth.[4]
On the floor, India has made historic progress. Extreme poverty on the World Bank's updated line fell from more than a quarter of the population to about one in twenty in eleven years, and consumption by the poorest 5% of households grew about 20% in a single year to 2023-24. [1][3] Social protection coverage, by the government's SDG reporting, rose from 22% of the population in 2016 to 64.3% in 2025. [2]
On the gap, the two main measures disagree, and 47 BH reports both. Consumption surveys show inequality falling, with the rural Gini at 0.237 and the urban at 0.284. [3] Income and wealth estimates built from tax and survey data show the top 10% taking well over half of national income and the top 1% owning two-fifths of wealth, among the highest concentrations in the world. [4]
A note on the numbers: consumption surveys miss the very rich, who rarely answer them, and so understate inequality at the top; income estimates rely on tax records and assumptions and are debated; poverty lines in dollars are adjusted for purchasing power and were revised in 2025, which changed the headline figures without changing anyone's life. The World Bank also reports 2.3% extreme poverty on its older US$2.15 line.
On the 47 BH report card
Every 15 August, 47 BH reports how far India has come on each sub-pillar. For this sub-pillar, the headline indicators are:
- Extreme poverty headcount at the World Bank's US$3.00 line, and the multidimensional poverty headcount (World Bank; NITI Aayog).
- Gini coefficient of consumption, rural and urban (Household Consumption Expenditure Survey).
- Share of national income going to the top 10% (World Inequality Database).
- Share of the population covered by social protection (SDG National Indicator Framework).
Two lenses on poverty and inequality
City and village
47 BH asks whether a landless family in a village and a daily-wage family in a city slum are both reaching the floor of a decent life, and whether the gap between a metro and a backward district is narrowing. Urban spending per person is still 70% higher than rural, and the five most populous states hold more than half of India's extremely poor. [1][3]
Learn, avoid, protect
- Learn
- What can India learn from countries that ended extreme poverty while keeping inequality in check, through broad-based growth, universal basic services and progressive taxation that is actually collected?
- Avoid
- Which mistakes should it avoid, such as declaring poverty over on one line while a quarter of the population sits just above it, or letting the floor rise while the ladder above it disappears?
- Protect
- What of its own should it protect, such as the public distribution system that reaches most poor households, the rural employment guarantee, and the direct transfer rails that get support to the poorest without leakage?
What this sub-pillar does not cover
Each topic has one home in the framework. These related topics sit elsewhere:
- Wages, jobs and their quality: Economy: Incomes and quality jobs
- Balanced growth across states and regions: Economy: Productivity and structural change
- Child nutrition as a health outcome: Health: Mothers and children
- Equal opportunity regardless of caste, community or disability: Family and Society: Social fairness
- Pensions and insurance as protection against shocks: Economy: Financial security
Questions about poverty and inequality
How many Indians live in extreme poverty?
About 5.3% of the population, roughly 7.5 crore people, lived below the World Bank's US$3.00-a-day extreme poverty line in 2022-23, down from 27.1% (34 crore) in 2011-12. On the older US$2.15 line the figure was 2.3%. [1]
Is inequality in India rising or falling?
It depends on what is measured. Consumption inequality fell between 2022-23 and 2023-24, with the rural Gini at 0.237 and the urban at 0.284. Estimates of income and wealth, which capture the very rich better, show the top 10% taking 57.7% of national income and the top 1% holding 40.1% of wealth in 2022-23. [3][4]
How much do Indian households spend each month?
Average monthly spending per person was Rs 4,122 in rural India and Rs 6,996 in urban India in 2023-24, according to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey. The poorest 5% of households saw their spending grow about 22% (rural) and 19% (urban) in a year. [3]
How many Indians are covered by social protection?
64.3% of the population in 2025, up from 22% in 2016, according to the SDG National Indicator Framework Progress Report cited by the Ministry of Finance. [2]
Why does 47 BH report two different pictures of inequality?
Because both are true in their own terms. Household surveys measure what ordinary families consume and miss the richest; income and wealth estimates capture the top but rest on more assumptions. A developed Bharat should look fair on both.
Sources
- World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform, India country profile, and Poverty and Equity Brief, 2025; headline figures as reported by PTI/The Week, 7 June 2025. https://pip.worldbank.org/country-profiles/IND
- Ministry of Finance, "Inclusive growth ... has yielded measurable gains for India", Press Information Bureau, 29 January 2026, citing the Economic Survey 2025-26 and the SDG National Indicator Framework Progress Report 2025. https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2219941®=48&lang=2
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, "Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24", press note, 27 December 2024. https://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/HCES_Press_Note_2023-24_27122024_rev.pdf
- Bharti NK, Chancel L, Piketty T, Somanchi A, "Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj", World Inequality Lab Working Paper 2024/09, March 2024. https://wid.world/www-site/uploads/2024/03/WorldInequalityLab_WP2024_09_Income-and-Wealth-Inequality-in-India-1922-2023_Final.pdf
47 BH cites every figure so that it can be checked. If you find an error, it will be corrected openly and the date below will change.