“An Empirical Study of Poverty in Gujarat”

Poverty is a complex and multidimensional social phenomenon as bulk of the poor people's home is India. According to FAO, 15% of the population of developing countries is poor. At India level, 29.5% population (363 million) is below poverty line, out of which 72% is in rural areas and 28% is in urban areas. The monthly per capita expenditure was below in the states like- Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in both urban and rural areas from Indian poverty line (972 Rs in rural areas and 1407 Rs in urban areas). Result states that In India, poverty is more prevalent in rural areas (30.9%) than urban areas (26.4%). The persons below poverty line has decreased from 38.2% and 36.4% in the year 2009-10 to 29.5% and 27.4% in the year 2011-12 respectively, in India and Gujarat. Over a period of 8 years, poverty is also declining by 6.32% and 4.91% respectively in Gujarat and India as Government programmes for the poverty alleviation is marked effective. In Gujarat, 27.4% of people are below poverty line and placed in middle category of Human Development Index (HDI). Poverty line is declining in all western states like- Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat but only at a modest pace. It is therefore imperative that better implementation of the existing programmes and new initiatives for enhancement of skills and trainings by the government should receive priority in poverty reduction as it is the major millennium development goals in India.