Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2020 | UPSC
HEADLINES:
Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 : India stopped counting poor; now the world in bind on how to achieve zero poverty by 2030
WHY IN NEWS:
COVID-19 impact: World will have 150 million ‘new extreme poor people’ in 2021
SYLLABUS COVERED: GS 3: Report
LEARNING:
For PRELIMS it is important to note key points like percentage fall and rise in poverty with respect to previous report , Publishers , timeline of the report etc.
For MAINS analyse the report as if you have been asked to prepare a report on Indian poverty and Standard of living .
Note down the critical comments to conclude and remember this report for a long-long time . Try to embed such reports in your answer . Let us dive in !
ISSUE:
POVERTY AND SHARED PROSPERITY REPORT 2020
- The Poverty and Shared Prosperity series provides a global audience with the latest and most accurate estimates on trends in global poverty and shared prosperity.
- For more than two decades, extreme poverty was steadily declining.
- Now, for the first time in a generation, the quest to end poverty has suffered its worst setback.
- Pandemic-related job losses and deprivation worldwide are hitting already-poor and vulnerable people hard.
- The report signifies partly changing the profile of global poverty by creating millions of “new poor.”
TITLE
Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 : Reversals of Fortune
PUBLISHED BY
World Bank
TIMLINE
Poverty and Shared Prosperity is a biennial report by World bank.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The number could rise to as many as 150 million by 2021.
- Six months ago, 40-60 million people were estimated to become extremely poor in 2020.
- This is the first time in 20 years that global poverty rates will go up.
- If the pandemic would not have been there, the poverty rate was expected to drop to 7.9 per cent in 2020.
- This is nearly twice the number of ‘new extreme poor’ estimated by the World Bank in April 2020.
- Most of the ‘new extreme poor’ will be in countries that already have high poverty rates.
- Several middle-income countries will see significant numbers of people slip below the extreme poverty line.
- About 82 per cent of the total will be in middle-income countries, according to the new World Bank estimates.
REPORT ANALYSIS
POVERTY AND SHARED PROSPERITY REPORT 2020 AND INDIA
- Decision (to scrap the 75th round of survey by NSO) leaves an important gap in understanding poverty in the country (India).
- This approach results in a lower national poverty estimate of 9.9 percent in 2017, with a 95 percent confidence interval of between 8.1 and 11.3.
- The India and South Asia estimates are reported for the widest range of estimates derived from these methods.
- This value would translate to between 7.7 percent and 10.0 percent poor in South Asia, that is, between 137 million and 180 million people.
- Neither approach is without limitations.
- Both these assumptions have been the subject of recent debate in India.
- The survey-to-survey method takes advantage of the variation in the survey data to capture changes in the distribution of welfare.
- However, if the imputation is done between periods too far apart, it may fail to capture important changes in the behavior of markets.
LACK OF DATA
- Important structural changes in the Indian economy between 2011 and 2017 may not be captured by these imputation techniques.
- Thus, the range of poverty estimates could be even wider than those presented in this report.
- The limitations of the methods described add to concerns about the lack of access to survey data to measure standards of living in India.
- There is no alternative to timely, quality assured, and transparent data for the design and monitoring of antipoverty policies.
POVERTY REDUCTION WAS SLOWING BEFORE THE CRISIS
- When 52 million people were lifted out of poverty between 2015 and 2017, the rate of reduction slowed to less than half a percentage point per year between 2015 and 2017.
- In two-and-a-half decades (1990-2015), the extreme poverty rate declined by 26 percentage points.
SHARED PROSPERITY
- Shared prosperity focuses on the poorest 40 percent of a population (the bottom 40) .
- Gains in shared prosperity, however, were unevenly distributed across country income categories and regions.
- Average global shared prosperity may stagnate or even contract over 2019-2021 due to the reduced growth in average incomes.
COVID-19, CLIMATE CHANGE AND POVERTY
- Under the COVID-19-baseline scenario, 6.7 percent of the global population will live under the international poverty line in 2030.
- As efforts to curb the disease and its economic fallout intensify, development agenda in low- and middle-income countries must be put back on track.
LOSSES IN JOBS AND INCOME FROM COVID-19
- Most countries have experienced drops in labor incomes.
- Income reductions have quickly translated into reduced consumption.
- Without strong action, COVID-19 will reduce inclusive growth and deepen inequality.
- Conflict and climate change may force rising numbers of people into poverty in the medium term.
TACKLING THE CRISIS
- Policy responses need to reflect the changing profile of the poor.
- Countries are taking action, innovating, and learning as they go.
- Emergency action and long-term development can share lessons.
GLOBAL POVERTY RATES
- Increasing numbers of urban dwellers are expected to fall into extreme poverty.
- While less than a tenth of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day.
- Close to a quarter lives below the $3.20 line and more than 40 per cent.
- Almost 3.3 billion people — live below the $5.50 line.
- India tops the global list in terms of absolute number of poor, going by the last national survey of 2012-13.
- Average income of people is projected to decline and this will hit the poorest the most .
IASbhai WINDUP:
- This report paints a sobering picture of the prospect of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.
- The global poverty estimates show that poverty reduction continues to slow, confirming previous predictions .
- The prediction was- the world will not reach the goal of lowering global extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030 unless swift, significant, and sustained action is taken.
- With just 10 years left to achieve the SDG I, it is an immediate crisis for the world.
- Without India’s latest data, there can’t be an objective global estimate of poverty.
- And without this, one can’t measure what is the level of poverty to be reduced nationally as well as globally.
- It almost hinted at the fact that we precisely don’t know the level of poverty to be reduced to meet the SDG I.
SOURCES:DownToEarth | Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report 2020 | UPSC
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