The population of dirt-poor in the city of riches—Chandigarh is increasing rapidly. The City Beautiful which is in the league of the cities with highest per capita income, has large number of filthy rich people while there are still many who are extremely poor.
Surprisingly, the city has seen shoot up in the population of persons below poverty line (BPl) in one year. According to the statistics released by the Planning Commission, the population of BPl people has increased by more than two-fold in last one year. The statistics tabulated by the Planning Commission during last year stated that Chandigarh has 9.2 percent of its population living below poverty line. The population of BPl stood at 95,000 last year while it has surged above 2 lakh now.
As per the latest data of Planning Commission, 21.8 percent of the population is living below poverty line in the city. While the number of BPl in urban areas has increased, the number of below poverty line in rural areas has seen a downward trend in last one year. The BPl living in Chandigarh’s rural areas have decreased from 3,000 to less than 400 in last one year. In urban areas of the city, the population of BPl has jumped upto 2.35 lakh people or 21.8 percent from 95,000 persons last year.
Among the Union Territories, the City Beautiful is at second spot in the number of people below poverty line after Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The data has been released recently after the nationwide survey conducted by National Sample Survey Office of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The population of BPl has been ascertained on the basis of per capita per month expenditure. And, the poverty line of Punjab has been used for both rural and urban areas of Chandigarh.
For urban areas, the monthly per capita has been taken as Rs 1,155 while for the rural areas, it is Rs 1,054. A year back, the monthly per capita was taken as Rs 830 for rural and Rs 960.8 for urban areas in Chandigarh. As per the census 2011 figures, the urban city of Chandigarh spreading over an area of 114 sq km has a total population of 10,55,450 people. It includes 5,80,663 males and 4,74,787 females. The city has 97.25 percent population living in urban areas and 2.74 percent living in rural areas. The Census 2011 stated that the city has 28,991 rural and 10,26,459 urban population.