World Bank Data Reveals Stark Contrast Between India and Pakistan in Fight Against Poverty » Capital News

June 11 – The latest data released by the World Bank reveals a striking contrast between India and Pakistan—two neighbours with a shared colonial past but vastly different trajectories in poverty reduction and economic management.

Over the past 15 years, India has recorded significant gains in lifting its citizens out of extreme poverty, while Pakistan has seen a worrying increase in poverty levels, underpinned by policy missteps, debt dependency, and misplaced national priorities.

According to the World Bank’s Poverty and Shared Prosperity report, the global benchmark for extreme poverty has been revised from $2.15 to $3 per person, per day to account for inflation and rising costs. Under this new threshold, India has seen extreme poverty fall from 27.1% of its population in 2011–12 to just 5.3% in 2022–23.

In absolute terms, this translates to a reduction from 344.47 million people living in extreme poverty to 75.24 million—a staggering 269 million people lifted out of destitution in just over a decade. That number alone surpasses Pakistan’s entire population.

In stark contrast, Pakistan’s data from 2017 to 2021 tells a different story. The proportion of its population living in extreme poverty rose from 4.9% to 16.5% in under five years. Broader poverty indicators are equally grim. At a threshold of $4.20 per person per day, poverty in Pakistan grew from 39.8% of the population in 2017 to over 44.7% in 2021. Analysts warn that the real situation may be even worse due to outdated data-gathering methods.

While India’s achievements are widely attributed to its development-focused governance, targeted poverty alleviation, and economic reforms, Pakistan continues to struggle with structural deficiencies. Its economic survival increasingly depends on bailouts and loans. The country has received 25 bailout packages from the International Monetary Fund amounting to $44.57 billion, alongside another $38.8 billion in loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Islamic Development Bank. In addition, Islamabad owes more than $25 billion to China and $7.8 billion through Eurobonds and Sukuks, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the Paris Club have also extended billions in financial support.

Yet despite these inflows, little has translated into sustainable development. Critics point to deep-rooted governance issues, especially the outsized influence of Pakistan’s military establishment, which controls large segments of the economy and policymaking. Much of the country’s resources—both domestic and foreign—are allegedly diverted to defence spending and the maintenance of a vast military apparatus, rather than education, healthcare, or infrastructure.

Former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria told NDTV that the real issue lies in the Pakistan Army’s overwhelming control over national policy. “All the funds sent via bilateral or multilateral donors end up being misused by the army and in building terror machinery,” he said, adding that global donors should impose stringent conditions, similar to those of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), to ensure aid benefits the Pakistani people rather than fuelling extremism.

Echoing these sentiments, former Ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar said that Pakistan’s political leadership appears more focused on defence purchases and fostering anti-India narratives than on development. “Growth and development are almost absent in the political discourse,” he noted. “Instead, successive governments prioritise building a terror infrastructure and engaging in asymmetric warfare against India.”

U.S. Congressman Brad Sherman recently called on Pakistan to dismantle its terror networks, a statement that, according to observers, reflects the frustrations of ordinary Pakistanis who see their future sacrificed at the altar of military ego and regional rivalry.

Economist Piyush Doshi, co-founder of the Foundation for Economic Development, remarked that Pakistan’s defence-heavy spending model is economically irrational, especially when essential services are underfunded. “The international community would be doing a favour to the people of Pakistan by imposing real consequences—perhaps even blacklisting—to compel more rational, citizen-centred governance,” he said.

The World Bank data offers more than just statistics—it tells a powerful story of two countries that started from similar places but took radically different paths. India’s focus on inclusive development, economic stability, and human capital investment is paying off. Pakistan, meanwhile, continues to grapple with deep economic distress, worsening poverty, and a dangerous prioritisation of military power over public welfare.

For the rest of the Global South, the message is unmistakable: poverty is not an unavoidable destiny—it is shaped by leadership, policy choices, and political will. One neighbour shows what is possible; the other, what must be avoided.