Tony Addison and Miguel Niño-Zarazúa China and India are making
immense strides in development. Growth in both countries has
been impressive. But there is now much concern about whether
impressive growth rates are yielding enough poverty reduction.
The present debate about their poverty lines is a reflection of
this. In this first part of a two-part article, we consider the
definition of the poverty line in China and India. Part 2, in
next month’s Angle, focuses on the key challenges facing these
two Asian giants. The last two decades have seen a big fall in
the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day, the
World Bank’s international poverty threshold—down from 1.9
billion in 1990 to 1.4 billion in 2005. By this measure, the
global poverty rate fell from 42% in 1990 to 25% in 2005, and it
may yet fall to 15% by 2015, or 900 million people. However,
US$1.25 does represent a very low standard of living. Those
below it are in extreme deprivation, and many people above this
threshold would regard themse