New Delhi: The Policy Commission has released the country’s first Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report, which has been followed by political turmoil. Four of the top five states in terms of poverty in the figures released by the commission are BJP ruled and Uttar Pradesh tops the list in terms of poor population. Somewhere the BJP has an absolute majority government and somewhere a decade and a half old coalition government, where people are impoverish.
According to the index released by the Policy Commission, 51.91 per cent of Bihar’s population is poor. The BJP-JDU alliance led by Nitish Kumar is a decade and a half old Government, while before December 2019, 42.16 per cent of the population in BJP-ruled Jharkhand was poor. In Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state, 37.79 per cent of the population lives in poverty.
As per 2011 census, UP has a population of 19.98 crore. Its 37.79 per cent population i.e. 7.55 crore population is poor. According to the 2011 census, Bihar has a population of 10.4 crore. About 52 per cent of its population i.e. 54 crore people are living in poverty. Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) is fourth in the index, while Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is fifth. Madhya Pradesh has also had a BJP government since 2003 (excluding December 2018 to March 2020) and Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been the Chief Minister since 2005, while Meghalaya (32.67%) is fifth. Both states are ruled by BJP either in the majority or with any alliance.
Kerala (0.71 per cent), Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent) have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index.
