New Delhi : India has halved the incidences of extreme poverty from 49.4 per cent in 1994 to 24.7 per cent in 2011, even though it is still behind neighbours such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal in terms of poverty reduction, says the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) report released here by NITI Aayog member Dr Bibek Debroy.
The report is based on the UN’s criteria of treating those with extreme poverty who live on $1.25 (Rs 75) or less a day. It says India is on track to achieve hunger-eradication targets even though it remains home to over a third of the world’s underweight children and food-insecure people.
The report shows that India has succeeded in achieving 11 out of 22 parameters, including education, poverty, health and education, and is on track to achieve one more by 2015-end, the deadline set by the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. The only parameter on which India is slow or almost off-track is the goal to significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. The parameters on which it is almost nearly on track are primary education, sustainable development and reversal of the loss of environmental resources and extension of benefits of new technology, especially information and communication, in cooperation with the private sector.
