With 30 crore poor people in India, the number of poor has barely changed over the last three decades. According to 11th Five year Plan, total number of poor people counted 32.13 crore in 1973, 32.29 crore in 1983, 32.03 crore in 1993-94 and 30.17 crore in 2004-05. This means the number of poor in the country has declined between 1993-94 and 2004-05 by roughly two crore. Even after sixty years of independence, over a quarter of our population still remains poor. However, the country has successfully reduced the share of the poor in the population from 54.8 in 1973 to 27.5 in 2004.