INDIA - India Is Home to More Poor People Than Anywhere Else on Earth

Nilanjana Bhowmick/New Delhi @nilanjanab  July 17, 2014

"We don't have to be proud of what we've done," one minister says

One third of the world’s 1.2 billion poorest people live in India, according to the latest Millennium Development Goals reportby the U.N.

Slum dwellers lead their life in poverty and unhealthy conditions in New Delhi, India on March 10, 2014. 

Anadolu Agency—Getty Images

India only managed to reduce its poverty rate (the ratio of the number of people who fall below the poverty line and a country’s total population) from 49.4% in 1994 to 42% in 2005 and 32.7% in 2010. By contrast, regional rival China brought it down from 60% in 1990 to an impressive 16% in 2005 and just 12% in 2010.

India also accounted for the highest number of under-five deaths in the world in 2012, with 1.4 million children not reaching their fifth birthday.

“We don’t have to be proud of what we’ve done,” admitted minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla to the Times Of Indiaon Wednesday. “Poverty is the biggest challenge.”

Source: http://time.com/