India is a country of multiformity in its culture,festivals or even wealth. In one side of India where people of big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc can afford luxurious life, in the other side India also holds several places, where people are extremely poor and are barely able to meet their ends.
Poverty in India is defined as those who consume less than Rs.600 per capita every month in the villages and below Rs.860 per capita every month in the cities. These cutoffs help identify the top ten poorest states of India. The top 10 Poorest states in India are as follows:
1. Chhattisgarh:
93% people are poor in Chhattisgarh. This is one of the poorest states in India. About one third population of this state lies below our extreme poverty line. Chhattisgarh contributes 15% of the total steel produced in India. Chhattisgarh became a state in 2000 after its separation from Madhya Pradesh.
2. Jharkhand:
Poverty at the state level is around 36.96% in this state. Social indicators of Jharkhand such as literacy, infant mortality, enrollment and child nutrition are below all-India average.
3. Arunachal Pradesh:The 4th state in the poorest states in India is Arunachal Pradesh. People below the poverty line in this state are 34.67%. It is the largest among the northeastern states and was formed in 1987. Agriculture primarily drives the economy.
4. Manipur:Manipur was formed in 1972. Poverty in Manipur is 36.89%. The hills cover 90% of the total area in Manipur. Lack of power, transport and communication contribute to the industrial backwardness of the state. Social and economic infrastructure is one of the lowest in India.
5. Bihar:The fifth position in the list of the poorest states in India is grabbed by Bihar. Half the population Bihar is below the poverty line. Poverty is around 33.74%. The reasons for the backwardness of agriculture are both institutional and technological. And structural and institutional factors acted as a barrier to the agrarian transformation.
6. Odisha:People below poverty line are 32.59%. Odisha has the second highest proportion of scheduled caste and tribal people in India. Half of the people in Odisha are educationally backward and rural female literacy, lower than the national average. Odisha has the highest percentage of children aged between six and 14 years who are out of school.
7. Assam:Nearly 31.98% of the people in Assam are below the poverty line. Assam’s location is away from the main production centers of India and this is the main reason for its low economic progress. Climatic conditions of Assam are also a factor hindering growth of the state.
8. Madhya Pradesh:Poverty in Madhya Pradesh is around 31.65%. Madhya Pradesh is the home to the largest number of Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India and is often called the tribal state of India. The rural poor in forested areas, particularly tribal populations, are dependent on the forest resources for subsistence, income and employment.
9. Uttar Pradesh:The poverty in UP is 29.43%. It is India’s largest state and also one of the poorest. A cycle of poverty, illness and death occurs in UP; partly because many girls are married off in their teens. UP is the state with the greatest number of malnourished children.
10. Karnataka: Percentage of people below poverty line is 20.91%. Nutritional deficiency among children in Karnataka is acute. It has failed in spreading the facilities of Bangalore’s development to the rest of the state. It remains one of the few states to have just one city, Bangalore, with more than 1 million people. North Karnataka has remained untouched by development.
These are the 10 poorest states in India where poverty is in dominance. The Indian Government is trying its level best to bring these states and their people to bring above the poverty line.