"India's success in reducing extreme poverty has not translated into broad-based prosperity." Critically examine, with reference to the prosperity gap and labour-market conditions.

India's extreme poverty ($3.00/day, 2021 PPP [2]) fell from 27.1% (2011) to 2.6% (2023), yet 80% of Indians remain below the $8.30 upper-middle-income line [1]. The statement largely holds: the gains are real but shallow.

Success in reducing poverty

• ~496 million people crossed the $4.20/day line between 2011 and 2023 [1].
• OPHI MPI fell from 53.8% (2005-06) to 16.4% (2019-21) [1].
• Drivers: consumption growth, rising female employment and food subsidies [1].

Prosperity gap: why gains are not broad-based

• Bunching: ~13.5% of Indians live between $3.00 and $4.20/day (2.6% vs 16.1%). For them, one illness or crop loss means relapse [1].
• India's Prosperity Gap is 4.9. Average incomes would have to rise nearly five-fold to reach a prosperous standard [1].
• Unequal earnings: top-decile workers earn ~13 times the bottom decile [1].
• Spatial concentration: the Uttar Pradesh–West Bengal belt holds ~57% of the remaining poor [1].

Labour-market constraints

• Informality: nearly 90% of workers are informally employed [3].
• Stagnant wages: regular workers' real wages stagnated or fell during 2012–22 [3].
• Poor job quality: after 2019, job growth was mostly self-employment and unpaid family work. Manufacturing's share of jobs is stuck at 12–14% [3].
• Weak wage floors: in 2022, 62% of unskilled casual farm workers and 70% in construction were paid below the minimum wage [3].

The counter-view

• Employment rose by ~134 million in 2017–2023, nearly twice the growth of the working-age population [1].
• Casual wages rose modestly, and the rural–urban gap narrowed [1][3].
• Measurement caveat: the switch to the MMRP recall method forced earlier estimates to be revised [2]. The decline is real, but its size is debated.

Way forward

• Earnings-led growth: labour-intensive manufacturing and strict enforcement of the Code on Wages, 2019.
• Track the $4.20 and $8.30 lines state by state, alongside the MPI.
• Extend social security to informal and gig workers, and link skilling to jobs.

Transfers lifted India above subsistence; better-paid jobs must now carry it towards prosperity. Moving from welfare-led alleviation to employment-led growth would advance SDG-1, SDG-8 and Article 43's living-wage ideal, making Viksit Bharat @2047 truly inclusive.