Poverty falls in Orissa, rises in Delhi

Among the major states, Orissa recorded the steepest fall in poverty from 2004-05 to 2009-10, Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar said.

In Orissa, poverty declined by 20.1 per cent during 2004-05 to 2009-10, while on all India level, it fell by 7.4 per cent in the same period, Kumar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The data is, however, based on estimates pegging poverty line at the controversial level of Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities.

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Among the north-eastern states, poverty fell by 22.6 per cent in Tripura from 2004-05 to 2009-10, while it increased in the states of Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Assam.

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Poverty rose by 12.1 per cent and 9.2 per cent in Nagaland and Manipur respectively. It also went up by 5.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent in Mizoram and Assam respectively.

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In Delhi, the national capital, poverty went up by 1.2 per cent. However, in Gujarat and Bihar it fell by 8.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent respectively during the five year period.

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Among other states, poverty in West Bengal declined by 7.5 per cent, while in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh it fell by 3.2 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.

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Kumar said the poverty ratio in the country has come down from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 29.8 per cent 2009-10.

During this period, poverty ratio has reduced by 1.5 percentage points per annum.