NEW DELHI, Sept 16: Two-thirds of South Asians are living in poverty and only a redistribution of the benefits of economic growth will lift them out of the rut, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) official said on Thursday.

"On the basis of a poverty line of two dollars a day, which is no generous standard, well over two-thirds of people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan live in poverty," said Geert van der Linden, vice president of the Manila-based ADB.

"It is clear the struggle against poverty in Asia will be protracted. Policy makers must focus on generating high rates of sustainable growth and also ensure the benefits of that growth are spread to all parts of society," he told foreign correspondents in New Delhi.

South Asia, he added, was also among the weakest performers in the Asian region when it came to reduction of infant mortality and malnutrition. "While the under-five infant mortality rates in 2000 were around 40 and 60 per thousand in East Asia and Southeast Asia, respectively, they were as high as 94 per thousand in South Asia," van der Linden added.

He said one positive development was that primary school enrolment in India and Bangladesh had increased in recent years, although youth literacy rates were still far behind East and Southeast Asia.

He added that South Asian governments needed to raise productivity in the agricultural sector in particular as the majority of the poor lived in the rural areas. "Simply put, economic growth should not bypass the poor." -AFP