Poverty in Odisha declines by 20% in 5 Years

Odisha witnessed a significant decline in poverty by around 20% in five years, which suggested the ruling BJD government under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik achieved the goal partially.

According to a report prepared by the Planning Commission of India, Odisha had the highest poverty headcount ratio (57%) in 2004-05. However, it has been reduced to 37% followed by Bihar (53.5%), Chhattisgarh (48.7%) and Manipur (47.1%).

The report said that poverty in India has declined by 7.3 percentage points to 29.8 per cent of the population over five years to 2009-10. The poverty in rural areas has declined significantly as compared to the urban cities between 2004-05 and 2009-10.

The poverty has declined in the states like Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand along with Odisha by about 10% points and more, the report says.

The data revealed that the poverty has increased in North-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. The poor states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh witnessed a marginal decline in poverty ratio.

The report is based on methodology recommended by the Tendulkar Committee, which includes spending on health, education, and the calorie intake.

The report said that the Sikh community has lowest poverty ratio in rural areas at 11.9 per cent, while Christians have the lowest proportion of poor at 12.9 per cent. The poverty ratio for Muslims is high at 33.9 per cent in rural areas of the states like Assam (53.6 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (44.4 per cent), West Bengal (34.4 per cent) and Gujarat (31.4 per cent).

Similarly, the ratio is the highest for Muslims at 33.9 per cent in urban areas of the states like Rajasthan (29.5 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (49.5 per cent), Gujarat (42.4 per cent), Bihar (56.5 per cent) and West Bengal (34.9 per cent).

The highest level of poverty was recorded in the ST community at 47.4 per cent followed by SC at 42.3 per cent and Other Backward Castes (OBC) at 31.9 per cent as against 33.8 per cent for all classes in rural areas.

The SC community has poverty ration of 34.1 per cent followed by STs at 30.4 per cent and OBCs at 24.3 per cent against 20.9 per cent for all classes in urban areas.

Nearly two-third of the SCs and STs are recorded poor in the rural Bihar and Chhattisgarh, while Manipur, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh reported more than half poor in those communities.