Defining poverty
Assam has higher percentage of poor people than the all India figure of 26.10 per cent. In Assam the rural urban divide is apparent.
Tapati Barua Kashyap

ASSAM has an extremely high proportion, more than a third (36.09) of its population, below the poverty line. The percentage of poor in Assam is the highest among the seven states of the North-East. It has higher percentage of poor people than the all India figure of 26.10 per cent. In Assam the rural urban divide is apparent. Two out of five people in rural areas are likely to be below the poverty line, while in urban areas the ratio is less than one in ten. Rural poverty is very much higher (40.04 percent of population in 1999-2000) than the all India figure of 27.09 percent. Conversely urban poverty is about a fourth of the all India figure of 23.62 percent. Urban poverty reduced from 21.73 percent in 1983 to 7.73 percent in 1993-94. Though there has been some improvement in percentage terms, the absolute number of poor shows only a marginal decline between 1993-94 and 1999-2000 (from 96.36 lakhs to 94.55 lakhs) and an increase from 1983, when the numbers of poor were 77.69 lakhs.

A survey was conducted in 1999 for the State Human Development Report, covering (though 17,140 sample households) all the 219 development blocks and 52 urban centres in Assam, to measure human poverty. The three determinants utilised are deprivation in longevity, knowledge and decent standard of living. The deprivation in longevity relates to survival that is the vulnerability to death at a relatively early age and is represented by the percentage of people not expected to survive beyond 40 years of life. The deprivation of knowledge is measured by the percentage of illiterate persons. Finally the deprivation of a decent standard of living is represented by percentage of people without access to healthcare services, safe drinking water, pucca dwelling and sanitation facilities and the percentage of malnourished children. A Human Poverty Index (HPI) concentrating on the deprivation of the three essential determinants of the quality of life was calculated.

The main findings say that poverty is more widespread in the western and southern parts and in the hill districts of the State. And as one move eastward from western border districts of Dhubri, Kokrjhar and Goalpara, the concentration of poverty falls and the district HPI values lie more or less around the overall State HPI, with the exception of Kamrup which has a relatively low HPI value. Kamrup has a high concentration of urban population, with Guwahati city-die gateway to the entire North-Eastern region and shows a relatively low incidence of poverty.

Income, employment and poverty are three inter-related and central areas of concern. Assam has not been able to progress as much as the rest of the country. Unless it grows faster than the rest of India  in the coming years, the gap between Assam and India will continue to be wide. An analysis of the income trends shows that in the 1970’s per capita income declined due to increase in population; since the 1980’s the decline has been move due to a slowing down of the economy.

What should be the appropriate measures to tackle the problems like poverty? The State Government needs to priorities and target especially relatively backward regions of the state and groups of disadvantaged people. A development strategy which is decentralised and seeks to involve a number of poor people and the larger community, which has potential advantages, needs to be developed by the Government.

To make education about poverty part of the school curriculum may be the first effective step. When people can really feel for the conditions of poor people, then half of their problems will change.

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