The Base of the Pyramid (BOP) includes 732 million people living on less than $3,000/year in villages and urban slums throughout India. The great majority of men and women work in agriculture, animal husbandry, factories or own rural shops.*
- Rural consumers total 45% of the country’s total GDP.
- Approximately 72% of the total India population live in 600,000 villages; and, about 8% of the total population live in 4,738 semi-urban towns
- The median age group is is 27.5.
- Average household size is 4.8.
- An average of 2.72 children are born to every adult woman.
- At 61%, the overall literacy level in India is well below Unesco’s target threshold of 75%. Literacy among women is just over 50%.
- There are over 112 “mother tongues” with more than 10,000 speakers; and, 33 languages spoken by one million or more persons.
- Indicators of human poverty suggest that 16.8% will not survive past the age of 40; and, 47% of children between the ages of 0-5 are underweight for their age.
* Ernst and Young, The Retailer, October 2009
The BOP customer refers to the estimated 4 billion people around the world who are poor by any measure and have limited or no access to essential products and services such as energy, clean water, and communications. Globally, people in this socioeconomic group earn US$1 to US$8 in purchasing power parity (PPP) per day. Yet these households often pay higher prices than wealthier consumers do for lower-quality goods and services because of uncompetitive markets. The rural Indian BoP market as households spend less than INR 3,453 Indian rupees (US$75) on goods and services per month. This definition represents a market of 114 million households, or 76 percent of the rural population. (CDF/IFMR “Power to the People” Study).