Cheking the claims 5 : Poverty reduction has been faster in recent times

Income poverty is
measured in terms of people living below poverty line (BPL). Planning
commission releases revised poverty line for the states and the country and
also an estimate of poverty in terms of people living below poverty line, at
regular intervals.

Income Poverty can
be defined as deprivation of minimum level of income or consumption
expenditure; the poverty line – which is state specific – was earlier being
calculated as level of calorie consumption. However, since last few years,
multi-dimensional poverty index is being calculated based on Tendulkar
Committee recommendations. This new poverty lines have been arrived at after
assessing the adequacy of private household expenditure on education and
health, something that the earlier calorie‐anchored poverty lines did not
explicitly account for. The same committee constructed poverty estimates for
1993-94 and 2004-05. Recently similar estimates were also published for
2009-10.

Gujarat has fared
very well in overall poverty reduction, especially in rural areas. While
between 1994 and 2005, rural poverty declined at compounded average of 1% per
year, between 2005 and 2010, it reduced at 7%. This was clearly reflected in
overall reduction of poverty at 6% compounded average rate. 

Truly, overall poverty reduction has been faster in recent times. This is way above national average.

Headcount Ratio (estimated proportion of people living below poverty line) in Gujarat over years

An interesting
feature of poverty reduction in Gujarat has been slow pace of reduction in
urban poverty; urban poverty reduced at an average of 3% between 1994-2005;
however, it could only reduce urban poverty by 2 points from  20% to 18%
during 2005-2010 amounting to around 2% average reduction per year.  While
it boasts of one of the most urbanized state, urban poverty reduction is of
vital importance as well. 

Comparing it with
other states, there has not been much of difference in relative rank of Gujarat
as far as proportions of poor people are concerned; it stood eighth best
performing state in early nineties, it maintains similar rank even in
2010.