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Steep increase in ratio of U.P. urban poor

Atiq Khan

Rural poverty has declined from 29 per cent to 26 per cent.

LUCKNOW: "Garibi hatao" in Uttar Pradesh may well remain a pipe dream considering the alarming increase in urban poverty across the State. The ratio of urban poor in the last five years has gone up to 33 per cent from 29 per cent at the turn of the 20th Century. Compared to this, the number of persons living below the poverty line in the rural areas, or the rural poor, has declined from 29 per cent to 26 per cent.

With the thrust on poverty alleviation, U.P. had proposed bringing the ratio of urban poverty down to 15 per cent and rural poverty to 10 per cent in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012). With the State also proposing a targeted growth rate of 12 per cent at the end of the 11th Plan, a reduction in urban poverty was crucial to the Government's plans to record a quantum jump in the growth rate. The growth rate target in the 10th Plan (2002-2007) was fixed at 8 per cent. According to planners, the growth rate at present is around 5.8 per cent, which is likely to go up to about 6 per cent in the last year of the 10th Plan.

An in-camera meeting held on Friday between Member, Planning Commission, in charge of U.P., Kirit S. Parikh, accompanied by Adviser, Planning Commission, Harish Chandra, and State planning officials reviewed State's plan proposals for the 11th Plan.

Informed sources said the Planning Commission officials were apprised of the targets fixed for improving health services, expanding the education net and bringing the drop out ratio to zero per cent by 2012, and reducing poverty, particularly in the urban areas.

The rise in urban poverty was attributed mainly to migration to town areas, or the "rural-urban" shift of population. Plan estimates have it that on an average the urban migration was around 5 per cent, enough to cast a heavy burden on the urban economy, given the paucity of jobs, civic services and housing. "While the poverty alleviation programmes in the rural areas saw an intervention of Rs.5,000 crore annually in the form of funds for the schemes, for the urban poor money spent on uplift schemes added up to about a hundred crores. There is no proper strategy or clear vision for making a dent in urban poverty," said a Planning official.

This absence of strategy was evident from the fact that whereas 10 lakh houses are proposed to be built for the rural poor under the Indira Awas Yojana, the Valmiki Ambedkar Malin Basti Avas Yojana (VAMBAY) scheme for building low-cost houses for the urban poor has remained a non-starter. The official told The Hindu that acquisition of land for VAMBAY houses was a big problem area. The State officials reportedly told the Planning Commission member that a strong intervention was needed to make a determined assault on poverty for making the Plan more effective.

As for the reduction in rural poverty, U.P. had proposed to adopt the Gujarat pattern of creating economic profile of each BPL household.

Apart from planning an assault on poverty, the State Government proposes to bring the teacher-student ratio down from 1:77 to 1:49 in the 11th Plan and complete literacy by 2012 from 56 per cent at present. On the health front, the State has proposed reducing the infant mortality rate from 72 per cent to 35 per cent and malnutrition ratio from the present 52 per cent to 20 per cent in the 11th Plan.

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Steep increase in ratio of U.P. urban poor

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