Sarlahi tops poverty list, Manang has fewest
KATHMANDU, June 9: The Ministry of Land Management and Poverty Alleviation (MoLMPA) has identified around one million poor families across the country through its Poor Household Identification Program, which has been implemented over the past 12 years.
The MoLMPA has classified the identified families into three categories: extremely poor, poor, and marginally poor. Senior ministry officials have prepared preliminary data estimating that the total number of poor families across all three categories stands at around one million nationwide.
Pushpa Joshi, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Land Management and Poverty Alleviation and Senior Statistical Officer at the Poor Identification Standards Division, said the ministry has completed the Poor Household Identification Program in all 77 districts. It has already analyzed data from 64 districts and received preliminary data from 10 others. However, the program has yet to gather data from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur.
“We have identified 886,801 poor families in the 64 districts where we completed data analysis,” Joshi said. “Preliminary data from 10 more districts show about 80,000 additional poor families. But we still lack data from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur.”
After spending Rs 700 million to identify the poor, Nepal still...
Joshi listed the 10 districts with preliminary data as Ilam, Kaski, Chitwan, Jhapa, Tehrathum, Nawalparasi (East), Nawalparasi (West), Parbat, Morang, and Sunsari.
Officials at MoLMPA’s Poor Household Identification Division estimate that nearly one million families across the country live in poverty. Their estimate combines the number of poor households already identified in 64 districts, preliminary data from 10 districts, and projected figures from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur.
Senior Statistical Officer Pushpa Joshi said Sarlahi recorded the highest number of poor families among the districts with analyzed data, while Manang reported the fewest. Sarlahi has 50,248 poor families, whereas Manang has only 59. According to Joshi, most districts with a high number of poor households are in the Sudurpaschim (Far Western) Province.
Bajura has identified 13,815 poor families. Among them, officials categorized 6,494 as extremely poor, 4,262 as moderately poor, and 3,059 as marginally poor.
In Kalikot, authorities recorded a total of 12,684 families. They classified 5,985 households as extremely poor, 3,951 as moderately poor, and 2,748 as marginally poor.
According to MoLMPA, Bajhang recorded 7,944 families as extremely poor, 5,013 as moderately poor, and 3,501 as marginally poor.
The MoLMPA reports that Mustang has very few poor families. It has identified only six households as extremely poor out of the total families in Mustang. Additionally, it has classified 14 families as moderately poor and 39 as marginally poor.
The MoLMPA not only identifies poor households but also issues poverty identification cards to them. It distributes red cards to extremely poor families, yellow cards to moderately poor families, and blue cards to marginally poor families.
The Ministry of Poverty Alleviation spent nearly two billion rupees between 2018 and 2021. The government launched the program to identify poor families and distribute identification cards in 2013 by forming the Poor Family Identification and Card Distribution Coordination Board.
In 2018, the government dissolved the Coordination Board and established the Poor Identification and Standards Division under the Ministry of Land Management and Poverty Alleviation.
