SSC
As per Planning Commission estimates for 2011-12, which state had the lowest percentage of population below the poverty line?
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Answer: Option D — Goa
Detailed Solution
According to the Planning Commission's estimates for 2011-12, based on the Tendulkar methodology and the 68th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) on household consumer expenditure, Goa had the lowest proportion of its population below the poverty line among states, at only 5.09%.
Goa's low poverty rate is linked to its high per capita income, good literacy, strong tourism and service sectors, mining (in the past), remittances, and relatively good infrastructure and public services.
Key findings of the 2011-12 estimates:
- All-India poverty ratio: 21.9% (25.7% in rural areas and 13.7% in urban areas), down from 37.2% in 2004-05.
- About 26.9 crore people were below the poverty line.
- States with the lowest poverty: Goa (5.09%), Kerala (7.05%), Himachal Pradesh (8.06%), Sikkim (8.19%) and Punjab (8.26%).
- States with the highest poverty: Chhattisgarh (39.93%), Jharkhand (36.96%), Manipur (36.89%), Arunachal Pradesh (34.67%), Odisha (32.59%) and Madhya Pradesh (31.65%), Bihar (33.74%).
- Among Union Territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli had the highest poverty (39.31%), and Andaman and Nicobar Islands the lowest (1%).
- The poverty line under the Tendulkar method for 2011-12 was ₹816 per person per month in rural areas and ₹1,000 in urban areas (about ₹27 and ₹33 per day respectively).
More recently, NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index, which looks at deprivations in health, education and living standards, has shown that Kerala has the lowest share of multidimensionally poor people, while Bihar has the highest. In 2025, the World Bank estimated that extreme poverty in India (at $3 a day in 2021 prices) fell sharply to about 5.3% in 2022-23, based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey.
Why not the other options?
- ✗Kerala had 7.05%, the second lowest.
- ✗Punjab had 8.26%.
- ✗Himachal Pradesh had 8.06%.
Quick tip
Remember: Poverty 2011-12 (Tendulkar method) = India 21.9%; lowest Goa (5.09%); highest Chhattisgarh (39.93%); MPI (NITI Aayog) lowest = Kerala, highest = Bihar.
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Poverty, Unemployment & Development — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Poverty, Unemployment & Development, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the problems of the Indian economy and how they are measured: poverty and the poverty line, committees on poverty estimation, types of unemployment, human development indices, and the programmes designed to tackle poverty and unemployment. Questions often ask which committee estimated poverty (such as the Lakdawala, Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees), what disguised and seasonal unemployment mean, and which organisation publishes the Human Development Index (UNDP). Rankings and indices change every year, so check the latest reports for those questions. Practise the poverty, unemployment and development questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.