From Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi: The latest official estimate of poverty has shown a decrease in below poverty line population in North Eastern states including Meghalaya, but showed wide variation in such people between rural and urban areas.
In case of Meghalaya the percentage of poverty has decreased from 17.1 percent in 2009-10 to 11.87 in 2011-12.
Similarly, number of poor people also decreased from 4.9 lakhs to 3.61 lakhs during the same period as per the latest data on ‘Poverty Estimates for 2011-12’, based on the Tendulkar Methodology, released by the Planning Commission of India recently.
But there are much more poor people living in rural areas of the hill state compared to the urban areas, the estimate released by the Planning Commission showed. There are 3.04 lakh poor (12.53 percent) persons living in rural areas compared to only 0.57 lakh (9.26 percent) in urban areas.
The previous report of the Planning Commission showed a whopping 15.3 percent (in rural areas) and 24.1 percent in Urban areas
BPL people in Meghalaya. Overall poverty decreased from the state compared to last estimate.
At the all India level rural poverty too has declined from 8.0 percentage points from 41.8% in 2004-05 to 33.8% in 2009-10.
The urban poverty declined by 4.8 percentage points from 25.7 % to 20.9%, the much debated data showed.
But despite this rosy picture nearly one third of the total population in Meghalaya, mostly in rural areas still remain poor despite many steps by the successive Governments.
Other states show more or less the same picture.
Assam’s percentage of population in the BPL segment is the third highest among the seven north-eastern States.
Among all the 35 States and Union Territories across India, Assam has the eighth highest proportion of population in the BPL segment, percentagewise.
Meghalaya, with only 11.87 per cent of its total population categorized as BPL, has one of the lowest poverty estimates in the North East.
In rural Meghalaya, 12.53% of the population are BPL, while the figure for urban areas of the State is 9.26 per cent.
In Manipur, which has highest number of poor, overall 36.89 per cent of the population is BPL, with 38.80 per cent of the population in rural areas and 32.59 per cent of the State’s population in the urban areas being categorized in the segment.
In Arunachal Pradesh, 34.67 per cent of the population are BPL, as per the latest estimates.
Altogether 38.93 per cent of its rural population and 20.33 per cent of its urban population have been classified as BPL.
Mizoram has an overall BPL percentage of 20.40, with 35.43 per cent of its population in rural areas and 6.36 per cent in urban areas categorized as BPL.
In Nagaland, 18.88 per cent of the State’s population is BPL, with 19.93 per cent and 16.48 per cent being the figures for rural and urban areas, respectively.
The BPL population of Tripura comprises 14.05 per cent of the State’s population. In rural areas of Tripura, 16.53 per cent of the population is BPL, while the proportion is 7.42 in the urban areas.
The former Himalayan state of Sikkim which is well ahead in case of most North East states has the least percentage of poor people. It has only about half a lakh poor people, which comprise 8.19 percentage of total population.
The Planning Commission has admitted that its last report on poor people was based on erroneous data base and sample survey.
But this time its very yardstick for considering somebody as poor has created much controversy in political and economic circles.