State poverty index continues to rise

Staff Reporter DIMAPUR, MARCH 5 ECONOMIC indicators and urban market indices of Nagaland are on a worrying ‘upward trend’ since 2005 when the State was ranked among states that boasted the lowest poverty margins in the country. The State now ranks 18th (18.8%) among the 30 states and union territories. In 2005, the State was among the states with the lowest poverty, with a ratio of mere 9%. According to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, the trend demands an action that is urgent, intensive, and effective. The ministry has released the much-awaited ‘Millennium Development Goals India Country Report 2014’. The authoritative ‘millennium developmental goals’ examines achievements and failure of poverty alleviation policies as well as their core targets within the policy framework in the country’s states and union territories. Increase in Poverty Head Count Ratio The results of Poverty Head Count Ratio (PHCR) reflect the extent of poverty in states/UTs and the progress over the years in reducing poverty, the newly-released assessment says. The official poverty estimates released by the Planning Commission based on surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure during 2011-12 reveals that the all-India PHCR has declined by 15 percentage points from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 21.9%. “Though, the nation shows considerable improvement in poverty reduction, it is alarming that, still, 1 in every 5 persons in India is below the national poverty line,” the reports stated. “In Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland, PHCR has increased during 2004-12. During this period, the States of Goa, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Haryana recorded more than 50% reduction in PHCR. During 2011-12, the poverty ratio in Uttarakhand, Tripura, Sikkim, Maharashtra, and Bihar, has declined by about 20 percentage points or more in comparison to 2004-05. In Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland, PHCR has increased during 2004-12, the report says. “The recent trend of increase in poverty head count ratio as well as poverty gap ratio in some States i.e. Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland is quite worrying, indicating urgent need for more intensive and effective measures of poverty alleviation,” millennium goals report says. However, Nagaland may trim the index to a decent extent if her poverty alleviation goals are met. The likely achievement would be 13.29 by 2015, if the state’s current goal is 12.75, the ministry said. Rise in Poverty Gap Ratio Another calculator was the ‘Poverty Gap Ratio.’ The Poverty Gap Ratio helps provide an overall assessment of a region’s progress in poverty alleviation and the evaluation of specific public policies or private initiatives. During 2011-12, the Poverty Gap Ratio in rural areas was above the corresponding all India figure in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Manipur, Jharkhand, Odisha, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh. However, the states of Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh had showed increase in their rural areas during 2004-05 to 2011-12, the report shows. The central government’s projection lends credence to a similar assessment made by the United Nations Developmental Program in 2010 called the ‘Strengthening of the state plans for human development’. The UNDP said that the growth of urban centers in Nagaland is not due to industrialization. “The areas for expenditure being wider for urban households, they are more vulnerable to poverty. In the urban areas, a typical household budget would go towards: transportation; getting to and from workplace, children’s school and essential services, housing and maintenance; rented included, if living in rented house, access to clean water, sanitation and garbage disposal as payment to cleaners, health care and children’s’ education,” the report said.