Poverty is the serious and complex economic problem before India.

• India is in the grip of poverty since age and this chronic problem is difficult to resolve.
• The landless and farm labourers, the small and marginal farmers, the village artisans the inhabitants of forests and mountainous regions and the tribals are the rural poor.
• The temporary (casual) workers in the industries, the daily wage earners, the domestic workers, rickshaw drivers, the workers in tea stalls, hotels and the dhabas are among the urban poor.
• On the basis of monthly expenditure of ? 4080 for family in the rural areas and ?5000 in the urban areas was declared as the poverty line by the Planning Commission 2011-12.
• Those families whose income was less were deemed as the “Below Poverty Line’ (BPL) families.
• The estimated “BPL’ population was 27 crores. It was 21.9% of the total population of India.
• As per the UNDP Report, 21.92% population of India lived below poverty line in 2011-12.
• The proportion of poverty in the rural and urban areas was 25.7% and 13.7%. Chhattisgarh is the poorest state in India, with 36.9% BPL population.
• On the other hand, Goa has the lower BPL population of 5.09%.
• In Gujarat 16.63% population live below poverty line. Besides Chhattisgarh, the other states having more them 30% BPL population are Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha.
• India has rich natural resources which have not been fully utilized.
• As a result, a large number of people live in poverty. It is said that, “The poor live in rich India”.