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India
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Jul 04, 2025
One in 4 Indians struggle to meet basic needs
India has made big progress in cutting extreme poverty—now only 5% live on less than $3 a day, down from 27% in 2011.
But the World Bank says about one in four Indians (over 35 crore people) still can't access basics like decent food, housing, healthcare, or education.
TL;DR
Deep inequality underlines the reality
To better reflect India's reality, the World Bank suggests raising the poverty line to $4.20 a day.
This move spotlights deep inequality: the richest 1% own more than 40% of India's wealth while the bottom half share just over 6%.
Even though multidimensional poverty dropped to 11.3% by 2022, economic struggles remain—especially with high urban costs and shaky rural incomes making it tough for many to get ahead.