NSSO data to show greater fall in poverty

Between 2004-05 and 2011-12, on an average, poverty declined by two percentage points a year, experts have said. Without naming the experts, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said they came to this conclusion on the basis of the pattern of the final consumption figures for 2011-12.

The 11th Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) had targeted reducing poverty by two percentage points by 2009-10, compared to 2004-05. However, when poverty data were released based on the consumption pattern for 2009-10, these showed on an average, poverty fell 1.5 percentage points a year. Though the fall was double the 0.76-percentage point decrease a year between 1993-94 and 2004-05, it was lower than the 11th Plan target.

Ahluwalia, however, said 2009-10 was a drought year, adding the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) decided to carry out another survey of the consumption pattern for 2011-12.

He said the final consumption data for 2011-12 were being processed. Experts who have worked on the data concluded poverty had declined by two percentage points between 2004-05 and 2011-12, he said.

He, however, clarified this wasn't his or the Planning Commission's conclusion, just that of the experts. The government has only released a part of the NSSO survey of the 2011-12 consumption expenditure.