Significant decline in percentage of poverty in Odisha and Bihar

July 31, 2013

As per the recent data, in Odisha the proportion of people below the poverty line (BPL) declined from 57.2% in 2004-05 to 32.6% in 2011-12 which resulted in a decline of 24.6%. In Bihar the proportion of people below the poverty line (BPL) declined to 33.7% in 2011-12 as compared to 54.4% in 2004-05 i.e. a reduction by 20.7%.

Key statistics:

All over India the BPL population is estimated to be 21.9% i.e. around 270 million. This means that roughly every fifth Indian lives below the poverty line.
Anyone earning Rs 27.20 or less in rural areas is BPL, while those earning up to Rs 33.30 a day in urban areas are classified as poor which varies from state to state.
Uttar Pradesh has just less than 30% of its population in the BPL group i.e. around 60 million people.
Even after the improvement Bihar still has 35.8 million poor and ranks second followed by Madhya Pradesh where 31.6% of the population is BPL.
Among the BIMARU states only Rajasthan has managed to do better than the national average with the share of BPL in total population estimated at 14.7% in 2011-12, compared to 34.4% in 2004-05 and is now a better performer than Gujarat with respect to its rapid growth and good infrastructure.
Gujarat has 16.6% people below the poverty line.
The decline in poverty is much steep in rural areas as BPL population came down to 25.8% (2011-12) from 42% (2004-05), around 17%, as against around 12% points in urban areas.