The Challenge of Poverty Eradication in South Asia

Introduction

Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable
livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and
other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in
decision-making. Today, more than 780 million people live below the international poverty line.
More than 11% of the world population is living in extreme poverty and struggling to fulfil the
most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few.

Poverty facts and figures

• 783 million people live below the international poverty line of US$1.90 a day.

• In 2016, almost 10 per cent of the world’s workers and their families lived on less than
US$1.90 per person per day.

• Most people living below the poverty line belong to two regions: Southern Asia and sub-
Saharan Africa.

• High poverty rates are often found in small, fragile and conflict-affected countries.

• As of 2016, only 45% of the world’s population was effectively covered by at least one
social protection cash benefit .

Poverty in South Asia – What has Gone Wrong

South Asia has made remarkable progress in reducing extreme poverty as compared to the rest of
the world, but a lot of work has to be done to improve the well-being of the relatively poor in the
region. According to the World Bank report, In South Asia, the number of extreme poor living
on less than $1.90 a day dropped to 216 million people in 2015 from 275 million in 2013 and
536 million in 1990. Even more remarkable, South Asian countries experienced an increase in
incomes among the poorest 40% of 2.6% a year between 2010-2015, faster than the global
average of 1.9%.

The report estimates for 2015 indicate that India, with 176 million poor people, continued to
have the highest number of people in poverty and accounted for nearly a quarter of the global
poor. In fact, the number of people in South Asia living in households without access to an
acceptable standard of drinking water, adequate sanitation or electricity – about one South Asian
in five lacks electricity at home – is far greater than those living in monetary poverty. And when
factoring in all aspects of well-being, the poverty rate more than doubles in five South Asian
countries. This means that the challenge in securing higher living standards for the population of
South Asia is far more daunting when poverty in all its forms is considered .