Poverty has declined in China, South Asia, East Asia and Pacific.

Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala have the lowest poverty ratio.

Different countries use different poverty lines because each country uses an imaginary line that is considered appropriate for its existing level of development and its accepted minimum social norm.

Following are some suggestions to remove poverty:
(i) Make people more literate so that they are able to do respectable jobs and earn more.
(ii) Make small sections of society more aware of small families and let them know the advantage of it
(iii) The government should increase economic development as a result more jobs and opportunities will help people raise their standard of living.
(iv) More programs like MNREGA, Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana etc. should be brought up so that there is no unemployeed person in the country.
(v) Labour laws should be strictly applied so that there is no child labour in the country and every single child gets education.

Initially, NREGA was implemented in 200 districts.

The results of these programmes have been mixed.
(i) One of the major reasons for less effectiveness is the lack of proper implementation and right targeting.
(ii) Moreover, there has been a lot of overlapping of schemes.
(iii) Despite good intentions, the benefits of these schemes are not fully reaching to the deserving poor.
Therefore, the major emphasis in recent years is on proper monitoring of all the poverty alleviation programmes.

Following are some reasons why population of poverty is not same in every state:
1. Fertility of land
2. Irrigation facilities
3. Rainfall
4. Tendency of people about hard working
5. Geographical conditions/land relief.

There has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.
1. States like Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates.
2. Kerala has focused more on human resource development.
3. In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty.
4. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu public distribution of food grains could have been responsible for the improvement.

Scheduled tribes, urban casual labourers and land less agricultural rural labourers are the poorest of the poor. Sometimes victims of the natural calamities are also the poorest of the poor.

Poverty may be defined as inability to satisfy minimum human needs concerning food, clothing, shelter, health and education.