NEW DELHI, INDIA, February 22, 2001: If you live on less than ten dollars U.S. per month, a pre-determined arbitrary national cut-off figure, then in India you would be one among 260 million people. However, according to Abusaleh Sharif, chief economist for the National Council for Applied Economic Research, “This is a national cut-off, and this figure is unrealistic.” Even though this recent determination statistically indicates that only 25% of the population now lives below the poverty line compared to 36% in 1993-94, the number of malnourished people in India is well over 60%. Poverty is more rampant in rural India and the northern states fare better than the eastern states. In the capital city alone 1.15 million people are struggling to survive.
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