26.53 lakh Manipur villagers live in below poverty line

Imphal, July 01: A report by the Planning Commission of India on the number and percentage of population below poverty line for the year 1999-2000 has indicated that state government needs to give more emphasis to development activities in the rural areas than urban areas to justify the meaning of a welfare state. According to the report, in the year 1993-94, the state had 6.33 lakhs people living below poverty line in rural areas. This amounted to 45.01 percent of the total rural population. Whereas, in the year 1999-2000, the number of persons living below the poverty line in the rural areas had increased to 6.53 lakhs though the BPL percentage to the total rural population decreased to 40.04 percent. On the other hand, the percentage of population below poverty line in all India average for rural areas was 37.27 percent in 1993-94 and 27.09 percent in 1999-2000. It is obvious that the percentage of rural poverty in Manipur is higher than the national percentage of poverty in rural areas. Further, the state had 66,000 persons in poverty in urban areas during 1999-2000 which amounted to just 7.47 percent of urban population. The number of urban persons below the poverty line was only 47,000 in 1993-94 which was 7.73 percent of the urban population. Whereas on an all India average, the urban poverty was 23.62 percent of the total urban population of India in 1999-2000 and 32.36 percent in 1993-94, indicating that the percentage of urban poverty in Manipur is lower than all India average of urban poverty. The inference is obvious that the state government is required to give more attention to poverty alleviation in rural areas of Manipur.