In 2008, 70.8% of India's total population lived in rural areas, progressively migrating to urban areas at an annual rate of 2.3%, a rate which is below that of many other countries (UNPD, 2008). While such economic development has led to an average increase in the standards of living, it has left the agricultural sector untouched, bypassing most of the rural poor. Therefore, although India has enjoyed a growth of GDP per capita, poverty remains a challenge. Poverty is also more concentrated in some states such as the eastern and north-eastern states as Figure 7 shows. In March 2007, the Indian Planning Commission estimated that over the 2004-2005 Page | 63 period, more than one-quarter of India's total population (27.5%) still lived below the poverty line (BPL), with a distribution of 25.7% urban dwellers and 28.3% rural dwellers (Planning Commission, Government of India, 2007)37 as seen in Table 17. But strong economic growth alone does not bring such amenities to the rural poor.