-DNA
The percentage of people living below the poverty line in Karnataka has come down by 9.7% in the estimate of poverty for 2009-10, released by the Planning Commission on Monday. In 2004-05, the percentage of people living below poverty line was 33.3%. In 2009-10, it was 23.6%.
Apart from Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand also recorded a decline of about 10 percentage points.
In Karnataka, there were over 1.42 crore people living below the poverty line in 2009-10, down from over 1.86 crore in 2004-05. While the poverty rate in rural areas was 26.1% (97.4 lakh people), in urban areas, it was 19.6% (44.9 lakh people).
The poverty line was calculated on the basis of a monthly per capita income of Rs629.4 in rural areas and Rs908 in urban areas of Karnataka. The state’s poverty percentage is lower than the national average.
The total number of people below the poverty line in the country has been estimated at 34.47 crore in 2009-10; it was 40.72 crore in 2004-05. The overall percentage of poverty across India also declined to 29.8%, from 37.2% in 2004-05.