By Abu Zafar, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 29 June, 2014: As a country India has more than halved its poverty in last four decades – in 1973-74, around 55% of the population was poor which declined to 22% in the year 2011-12. But there are several states including major ones like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh which have performed very poorly on the front of poverty.
According to the latest government survey on poverty, in 1973-74 the all India rate of poverty was 54.9 percent but after about 38 years it declined to 21.9 percent.
There are several states, mostly from southern parts of the country, whose performance is better. The poverty rate there has declined faster than the national rate. Kerala had 59.8 percent Below Poverty Line (BPL) population in 1973-74 and in 2004-05 it was 19.06 percent and in 2011-12, it came down to only 7.1 percent. Similarly, Tamil Nadu had 54.9 percent BPL population in 1973-74 which declined to 11.13 percent in 2011-12. In 1973-74, Andhra Pradesh had 48.9 percent people under BPL, but it declined to 29.6 percent till 2004-05 and in 2011-12 it recorded 9.2 percent.
West Bengal had largest proportion of BPL population among all major states in 1973-74 and it was 63.4 but it recorded 20 percent in the latest report.
Percentage of Population below poverty line
States
1973-74
1983
1993-94
2004-05
2011-12
Andhra Pradesh
49.9
28.9
22.2
29.6
9.2
Bihar
61.9
62.2
55.0
54.4
33.7
Gujarat
48.2
32.8
24.2
31.6
16.6
Karnataka
54.5
38.2
33.2
33.3
20.9
Kerala
59.8
40.4
25.4
19.6
7.1
Madhya Pradesh
61.8
49.8
42.5
48.6
31.7
Maharashtra
53.2
43.4
36.9
38.2
17.4
Punjab
28.2
16.2
11.8
20.9
8.3
Rajasthan
46.1
34.5
27.4
34.4
14.7
Tamil Nadu
54.9
51.7
35.0
29.4
11.3
Uttar Pradesh
57.1
47.1
40.9
40.9
29.4
West Bengal
63.4
54.9
35.7
34.2
20.0
All India
54.9
44.5
36.0
37.2
21.9
Source: Planning Commission of India
But several states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have performed very badly and still a large number of people there are living under BPL.
The Planning Commission report ‘Poverty Estimates, 2011-12’ suggests that as per Tendulkar Committee recommendations, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur Odisha and Uttar Pradesh have large chunk of the BPL population of the country.
Uttar Pradesh had 57.1 percent BPL people in 1973-74 but after about 40 years, still 29.4 percent of UP population is under BPL category. There are about 6 crore BPL people in the state.
Interestingly, since independence out of 15 Indian Prime Ministers, nine were from UP. The current Prime Minister Narendra Modi also won election from UP’s Varanasi constituency.
Bihar, which had 61.9 percent BPLs in 1973-74, still has 3.58 crore BPL people, which is 33.7 percent of total population of the state.
Gujarat, whose ‘development’ was successfully encashed by Modi in the recent Lok Sabha election, has 16.6 percent population (More than one crore) are in BPL category. In 1973-74 the percentage of poverty was 48.2. Gujarat has more poor people ( in percentage) than in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Meghalaya, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Goa, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Daman & Diu and Lakshadweep.
