From CK Nayak
New Delhi: Despite all tall talks of development, level of poverty in Northeastern states including Meghalaya has increased even though the same has declined in the rest of the country.
More alarmingly, poverty level among the rural tribals, who mostly inhabit in North-East, is as high as 47.4 per cent.
This was revealed in the Planning Commission report — Poverty Estimate, released on Monday.
The Planning Commission said poverty in India declined 7.3 percentage points to 29.8 per cent of the population over five years to 2009-10.
Poverty in rural areas declined at a faster pace than in urban cities between 2004-05 and 2009-10, according to the Planning Commission report.
The total number of poor in the country has been estimated at 34.47 crore in 2009-10, as against 40.72 crore in 2004-05.
“The all India head count (HCR) ratio has declined by 7.3 percentage points from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10, with rural poverty declining by 8 percentage points from 41.8 per cent to 33.8 per cent and urban poverty declining by 4.8 percentage point form 25.7 per cent to 20.9 per cent,” said an official statement.
The sharp decline in poverty of over 10 percentage points was witnessed in Himchal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand.
“In Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty in 2009-10 has increased,” the report said. India’s poverty estimates are used to determine public access to welfare benefits. Anyone living below the so-called poverty line is entitled to subsidised food and cooking fuel distributed through state-owned stores.
The criteria for measuring poverty levels vary from state to state in India but are now generally based on household spending on food, education
The rural poverty declining by 8.0 percentage points from 41.8% to 33.8% and urban poverty declining by 4.8 percentage points from 25.7% to 20.9%., the report said.
Poverty ratio in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand has declined by about 10 percentage points and more.
Some of the bigger states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have shown marginal decline in poverty ratio, particularly in rural areas. In rural areas, Scheduled Tribes exhibit the highest level of poverty (47.4%), followed by Scheduled Castes (SCs), (42.3%), and Other Backward Castes (OBC), (31.9%), against 33.8% for all classes, the report said.
As far as occupational categories is concerned nearly 50% of agricultural labourers and 40% of other labourers are below the poverty line in rural areas, whereas in urban areas, the poverty ratio for casual labourers is 47.1%., the report said.