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The number of undernourished people (million) in 2001-2003, according to the FAO, is the largest for India. . According to this source, India had 212 millions of undernourished people, China had 150 million and Bangladesh 43.1 million. Pakistan had the fifth largest number with 35.2 million.

The recent ecenomic developments have mainly helped upper and middle class Indians. India still has a great amount of poverty: 34.7% of India's poorest population (the population that lives on 3/4 of the poverty line or less) still live on less than US$1 a day and 79.9% live on US$2 per day. The National sample survey organisation (NSSO) estimated that 26.1% of the population was living below the poverty line in 1999–2000, down from 51.3% in 1977–1978. The criterion used was monthly consumption of goods below Rs. 211.30 for rural areas and Rs. 454.11 for urban areas. 75% of the poor are in rural areas (27.1% of the total rural population) with most of them comprising daily wagers, self-employed households and landless labourers. The major causes for poverty are unemployment or under-employment, low ownership of assets (especially productive assets like land and farm equipment) and illiteracy.

Since the early 1950s, successive governments have implemented various schemes, under planning, to alleviate poverty, that have met with partial success. All those programmes have improved upon the strategies of the Food for work programme and National Rural Employment Programme of the 1980s, which attempted to use the unemployed to generate productive assets and build rural infrastructure. In August 2005, the Indian parliament passed the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, the largest programme of this type, in terms of cost and coverage, which promises 100 days of minimum wage employment to every rural household in 200 of India's 600 districts. Template:Inote The question of whether economic reforms have reduced poverty or not has fuelled debates without generating any clear cut answers and has also put political pressure on further economic reforms, especially those involving downsizing of labour and cutting down agricultural subsidies.

Notes

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference survey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. Mehta, Aasha (2002). "Chronic poverty in India: overview study". Chronic Poverty Research Centre. Retrieved 2006-07-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
3. ^ Datt, Ruddar & Sundharam, K.P.M. "22". Indian Economy. pp. 367, 369, 370.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. "Jawahar gram samriddhi yojana". Retrieved July 9. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

• Poverty by Country