International Monetary Fund (IMF) paper stated that in India, the number of people living in extreme poverty, i.e. people living on USD1.9 or less in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms was 0.8 percent of the population in the pre-pandemic year 2019.
According to new working paper published by IMF, India has battled against extreme poverty and almost wiped it out and brought down consumption inequality to its lowest levels in 40 years by initiating state-provided food handouts.
The study has also revealed that food rations were played an instrumental role in making sure that the graph of extreme poverty did not rise and remained at that low level in the pandemic year 2020.
The report also stated, “Our results also demonstrate the social safety net provided by the expansion of India’s food subsidy program absorbed a major part of the pandemic shock.” The report was concluded by stating, “Such back-to-back low poverty rates suggest India has eliminated extreme poverty.”
