Seven district in J&K fall in poor category

Tahir Mushtaq


JAMMU, Feb 01: While the overall Below Poverty Line (BPL) population in Jammu and Kashmir has shown a downward trend in last decade, 7 districts out of 22 still fall in the poor category with 40 per cent of the BPL population in the state living in these areas.


Among the districts which fall in poor category include the three newly created districts of Reasi, Ramban and Kishtwar which were carved out by the previous PDP-Congress coalition government in the state.


On the basis of BPL head count ratio and BPL household count ratio conducted by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, the seven poorest districts in the state are Reasi, Ramban, Kishthwar, Poonch, Kupwara, Kargil and Bandipora which have more than 30 percent (37.93 percent to 31.09 percent) estimated BPL population.


According to the survey these seven districts have 30-40 percent people below poverty line, 9 districts recorded 20-30 percent poverty and 5 districts recorded 10-20 percent poverty while 1 district recorded 0 to 10 percent poverty ratio.


The estimated poor population in the state has been recorded in newly carved out districts Reasi, with the indicator standing 1.04 lakh persons, Ramban, has 89 thousand poor people , Kishthwar has 80 thousand, Poonch has 1.35 lakh, Kupwara has estimated BPL population of 2.30 lakh. Baramulla has total BPL population of 2.23 lakh, Kargil has 71 thousand.


According to the survey of the 24.21 lakh people who fall in below the poverty line, 22 lakh are from rural areas and while 2.21 lakh persons live in urban areas.


“There has been decline but it is too slow and planners need to give more consideration to formulate policies for eradication of poverty ”, said a official.


Sources said that the study has revealed that newly carved out districts have higher BPL population percentage due to the remoteness from their erstwhile district headquarters resulting in slow development and are hence still rural in character.


However the good news for the planners is that there has been a continuous fall in the poor population in past over a decade (1993-2008). Figures say that the BPL percentage in the state in 1993-94 was 30.34 for rural, 9.18 for urban and combined total percentage of 25.17. It has now declined to 26.14 in rural, 7.96 in urban and 21.63 percent in 2007-08.