Poverty in Karnataka – regional and groupwise analysis

Using the National Sample Survey Organization and pooled data, this paper examines regional and groupwise variations in poverty within Karnataka¹. The poverty level has been declining in the ¸state but the state has the highest poverty ratio among the southern states. The urban poverty in the state is higher than rural poverty, while the level of poverty is higher in the northern districts than in the southern districts. There is a positive correlation between the poverty head count ratio and poverty gap on the one hand and total rural families and Below Poverty Line families on the other. There is a negative correlation between the Net State Domestic Product and poverty Head Count Ratio in Karnataka. The Schedule Cast and Schedule Tribe households have lower level of average consumption and high head count ratio.

The recent policy emphasis has been on inclusive growth, which can be measured, inter alia, by the proportion of bottom half of population in the neighbourhood of the average. The extent of inclusion of poor in the mainstream has declined in Coastal Karnataka while it increased in the other regions and in the state as a whole. The extent of inclusion is the highest in Inland Eastern region. The extent of inclusion in rural Karnataka as a whole was 0.911 in 2004–05. In other words 91.10% of the bottom half of the rural population fell in the neighbourhood, as given by the range of 0.6 times the median and the median itself, that is, in the interval between Rs. 255 and Rs. 426.