First phase of poor household survey over

KATHMANDU:

The first phase of work related to of identity cards to poor households in the country has been completed, with the conclusion of the task of conducting surveys of people living below the poverty line in 24 districts.

Although a board formed under Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) had initially planned to conduct surveys on poor households in 25 districts, it omitted Dolpa after a team deputed by ministry found out that most of the people had left their homes to harvest yarshagumba at the time when the information was being collected.

“We are planning to restart the information collection process in Dolpa this fiscal year,” said MoCPA joint secretary Suresh Pradhan. “We will also start carrying out surveys in remaining 50 districts if we receive adequate budget.” The Poor Household Identification and Identity Card Management and Distribution Coordination Board, formed under MoCPA, in mid-April, had launched task of collecting data on number of poor households in 25 districts of the country.

Some of the districts where the surveys were conducted include Bhojpur, Khotang, Siraha, Sindhuli, Ramechhap, Rautahat, Gorkha, Tanahu, Baglung, Kapilvastu and Arghakhanchi. Similar surveys were also carried out in Pyuthan, Rolpa, Rukum, Bardiya, Jajarkot, Jumla, Kalikot, Mugu, Humla, Bajura, Bajhang, Achham and Kailali.

“With the completion of the survey in 24 districts, we are planning to start the process of analysing data collected so far. Following this, households will be categorised into groups such as moderately poor, extremely poor and destitute,” Pradhan said. Once this is done, MoCPA teams will revisit the 24 districts and conduct a public hearing.

During this phase, people who were left out by the survey will be included and households mistakenly categorised as poor will be removed.

After this is completed — which is expected to take five to six months —MoCPA will start distributing identity cards to poor households. “We are planning to start this work by the end of this fiscal year,” said Pradhan.

The Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF), in February 2012, had formally decided to distribute identity cards to poor households to make it easier for the government and others to identify the number of poor households in the country and make it easier to introduce targeted programmes related to poverty reduction in an efficient and effective manner.

PAF had later transferred this task to MoCPA following the establishment of a different ministry to look into poverty issues around a year back.

Currently, 23.8 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. As per one definition, people who earn less than Rs 19,261 per year are considered as poor in the country.

Source: THT