Comparable all-India estimates of the number of workers and unemployed in 'below poverty line' households - together defining the poor in the Indian labour force - are presented for 1993-94 and 1999-2000. Also presented is the gender, activity-status and the rural-urban composition of this group for the two time points. From a level of 115 million (43 million females and 21 million urban) the number of working poor declined by a little over 12 million - almost entirely in rural India - over the six-year period. Over 51 (36) per cent of the rural (urban) working poor were engaged in unskilled manual labour with a further 46 per cent (44 per cent in urban India) being absorbed by low-productivity self-employment.