What is the global poverty scenario?

Although there has been a substantial reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional differences.
(i) Poverty declined substantially in China and south-east Asian colonies as a result of rapid economic growth and massive investment in human resource development.
(ii) In the south Asian countries, the decline has not been as rapid. Despite decline in the percentage of poor, the number of poor has declined from 475 million in 1981 to 428 million in 2001.
(iii) In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty in fact rose from 41 per cent in 1981 to 46 per cent in 2001.
(iv) In Latin America, the ratio of poverty remained the same.
(v) Poverty has also resurfaced in some of the former socialist countries like Russia.