Unpacking the data: Why India

June 19, 2025

Despite optimistic claims of poverty elimination in India, significant changes in survey methodology over the years and the persistence of outdated poverty lines render such conclusions dubious.

Discussions on poverty in India have long centred on the Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys (HCES) [1] which are conducted nationwide. These surveys measure how much households spend and are often used as a stand-in for household income since reliable income data is hard to collect in developing countries.

However, after 2011-12, there was a long gap in these surveys which left a void in official data. As a result, researchers began relying on other surveys or constructed synthetic estimates of household spending. Unsurprisingly, these efforts tended to reflect the researchers