By IANS,
New Delhi : Eight states account for 193.8 million poor people out of the national total of 301.7 million, the Rajya Sabha was informed Thursday.
Minister of State for Planning V. Narayanasamy identified the states as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
In a written reply to Rama Chandra Khuntia, the minister quoted the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative to say that 421 million people in these states were “multi-dimensionally poor”.
The report also stated that the concentration of poverty was more among social groups like Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, the minister said.
He, however, pointed out that the official estimates of poverty in India were based on data obtained from surveys carried out by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO).
He added that the Planning Commission estimates showed that 41.4 percent of the population lived below the poverty line in Bihar.