India accused of poverty 'smokescreen' But their findings were fiercely criticised by political leaders and analysts who said it had used unacceptably low income levels as the benchmark to hide the real scale of poverty in the country. Mohan Guruswamy of the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Alternatives think tank said the government's benchmark is based on the numbers earning the amount of money it costs to eat 2000 calories of food per day. Its figure of between 28 and 35 pence per day is around a quarter of the poverty level income of 100 Rupees or £1.25 per day set by the United Nations Development Programme. Twenty eight Rupees per day is the starvation line. We must have a comprehensive poverty line for basic human needs like access to education, drinking water, electricity and medical care. Seventy per cent of Indians earn less than 100 Rupees per day and that makes the government look bad. So these [government] figures are a smokescreen to make them look good. The whole elite is in denial that there is a problem in society [and think] India is shining," he said. A statement released by India's CPI (M) Communist Party accused the government of "fraud" and called for an assurance that its benchmark figures would not be used to cut the numbers entitled to welfare benefits. This shows the huge gap between the members of the Planning Commission and the reality lived by crores [tens of millions] of people in this country who have been burdened by relentless price rises amidst meagre incomes. It hardly needs to be stated that these are destitution lines and it is a shame that an institution chaired by the Prime Minister should produce such absurd figures," it said. The report highlighted an uneven pattern in India's growth story with some states making significant advances in poverty reduction and others slipping behind. In Goa, the tourism destination and mining centre on the Arabian Sea, the percentage below the poverty line shrunk from 25 per cent in 2005 to 8.7 per cent in 2010-2011, but in Bihar, one of India's most backward states, the number of poor people increased by five million to 54.3 million. According to the Planning Commission findings, Muslims are India's poorest religious minority, while India's Christian minority has the lowest percentage of poor people. Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen said there had been no change in the relative poverty of caste and religious groups. The relative ranking across castes or religion has not really changed. Those who used to be poorest are still the poorest. But it is also the case that poverty has declined for all of them," he said.