New Delhi: Almost 79 percent of Scheduled Tribes and 63 percent of Scheduled Castes population of Orissa lives below the poverty line, says a study conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
The higher-than-average level of incidence of poverty seals among SC/ST, are engaged in agricultural occupation, possess land up to 2.5 acres, and are of size four to eight members. Each of these groups individually account for more than half of total poverty ‘n the State.
But there is substantial overlapping among these groups. The households which possess all the four characteristics have been identified as the ‘core target group’ requiring priority in poverty ameliorating doorgames. The probability of a household with these characteristics falling below the poverty line is “as high as 85 per cent.
The NCAER study reveals substantial intra-State variations in rural poverty in Orissa. The coastal region has appreciably lower percentage of poor (41 per cent) than the southern or northern regions (68 and 65 per cent respectively). One of the factors responsible for this variation is the fact that the southern and the northern regions have a higher proportion of the ST population in the State. (Hindustan Times, July 6).
