Poverty declined to 14 per cent in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Poverty in Delhi has come down to 14 per cent of the population from around 50 per cent 31 years ago, the capital's latest Economic Survey revealed on Tuesday.

There were 22.84 lakh people in BPL category in 1973-74 which was 49.61 per cent of population while it decreased to 22.93 lakh in 2004-05 which was 14.70 per cent of the population, the Survey presented in the Delhi Assembly said.

It also noted that the BPL category fell to single digit eight per cent of total population in 1999-2000.

The survey attributed the decrease in numbers to various poverty alleviation programmes initiated by the Centre and Delhi government.

"The reduction of poverty level in Delhi was higher than the national level even if the migration towards Delhi was highest during the last three decades.

"It may be observed that the Delhi's BPL per centage is less than the national level between 1973-74 and 2004-05," it said.

In Delhi, a person earned less than Rs 410.38 in rural areas in 2004-05 and Rs 612.91 in urban areas were in Below Poverty Category.

The survey also said that in the every Rs 100 spent by households in urban Delhi, Rs 36 were spent on food items and the remaining on non-food items.

In the country, it was Rs 39 for food items.