Over 600,000 poor families identified across the country

KATHMANDU: The government has identified 612, 772 poor families in 53 districts. According to the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, the poor families were identified by carrying out surveys in two phases.

The Ministry said that poor families were identified in 26 districts in the first phase through the PMT method conducted on the basis of Poor Household Identification Survey 2070.

Janak Raj Joshi, spokesperson at the Ministry, said that the survey was conducted in 1,224,017 families in the first phase. Among the 1,224,017 families, 391,831 families were classified as poor families.

The Ministry said that among the poor families, 18, 8232 are extremely poor, 119,754 are middle poor and 83,845 are moderately poor.

Meanwhile, while conducting surveys in 21,711 households in Bajura, 13,619 are living below the poverty line.

The Ministry said that 6,393 families are extremely poor, 4,228 families are middle poor and 2998 families are moderately poor.

Similarly, 12,433 families are identified as poor families in Kalikot and 4,560 families are classified as poor families in Humla.

The Ministry said that 5,877 families are identified as extremely poor, 3, 872 families are middle poor and 2,684 families are moderately poor in Kalikot district.

Similarly, 2,109 families are classified as extremely poor, 1,420 families are middle poor and 1,031 families are moderately poor in Humla district.

Meanwhile, Tanahun has the lowest poverty rate. The Ministry said that 9,275 families have been identified as poor families. Of them, 4,600 are extremely poor, 2,829 are middle poor and 1,846 are moderately poor.

The Ministry said that the data of 23 districts have been collected in the second phase.

According to the preliminary investigation, while conducting surveys in 1,125,209 households in 23 districts, 220,941 families means 19 percent are classified as poor families.

Similarly, 14,496 households that means one percent have not been identified as poor or non-poor families.

While conducting a survey for the second phase, Doti has been identified as the poorest district.

The Ministry said that 18,781 families have been identified as poor families followed by Darchula with 12,159 families and Dadeldhura with 11,106 families.

The Ministry said that Syangya has the lowest poverty rate with 3,323 poor families and Palpa has 4,400 families.

According to a source at the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, the government had spent Rs 620 million to identify poor households in 26 districts and Rs 80 million to identify poor families in 23 districts.

The Ministry said that it will launch the third phase of survey in the remaining districts from the next fiscal year.