Odisha has registered one of the sharpest declines in poverty levels between 2004-05 and 2011-12 although the proportion of the poor in the State remains well above the national average.
This was revealed by the Planning Commission in its report on Poverty Estimates for 2011-12.The latest data released on Tuesday showed that in Odisha, the proportion of people below the poverty line (BPl) in total population came down from 57.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 32.6 per cent in 2011-12, a decline of 24.6 percentage points. The national average is 21-9 per cent.
The Planning Commission has periodically estimated poverty lines and poverty ratios for each of the years for which large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure have been conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. These surveys are normally conducted on quinquennial basis. The last quinquennial survey in this series had been conducted in 2009-10. However, since 2009-10 was not a normal year because of a severe drought, the NSSO repeated the large-scale survey in 2011-12.