Nearly 71 percent of Haryana’s population remained below poverty line (BPL) despite the state’s per capita income standing at Rs 2,96,592, exceeding the national average of Rs 1,72,276.
The state’s economic survey report for the financial year 2023-24, revealed that a total of 19,890,964 people – around 71 percent of the state’s 2.8 crore population, was under the BPL category.
The monthly household income of this population was below Rs 1.80 lakh annually, a benchmark set by the state government to define the BPL category.
The data further revealed that nearly 2.67 lakh people come under the BPL category in the first two weeks of November this year, with the new members of joining the BPL list, the number reached to 1.98 crore.
Even, as the government has predicted that the per capita income may reach to Rs 325,759 next financial year, nearly 20 lakh people have been added into the BPL list in 2024 so far. The officials in the Haryana Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department and the Aadhar-enabled Public Distribution System helped to update the figures of BPL beneciaries on regular basis.
The number of BPL beneficiaries in 2022 was 1.24 crore and in the past two years 75 lakh people have been added into the list of BPL families.
However, experts attributed the rise in BPL population to the state government’s move to introduce family ID portal for regular monitoring of income of the state population.
If the annual income of household falls below the threshold of Rs 1.80 lakh, such families will automatically come under the BPL category.
The initiative was taken with the introduction of the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) or family ID to keep a check on the household income of the state’s population. But in the past couple of months a sudden rise was witnessed in number of BPL families with the increase of 812,198 compared to September’s figure of 19,078,766.
In December 2022, the department listed around 1.24 crore people of the state’s population was under the BPL category.
The figures revealed that in April this year the state had total of 1,80,93,475 BPL population registered on 44.90 lakh BPL cards.
With the surge in BPL population the government has also increased it’s focus on this category especially ahead of assembly elections. Besides several other benefits including 5 kg of foodgrains per person, 2 litres of subsidised mustard oil, and 1 kg sugar at Rs 13.5, the state government has also announced to provide 100 square yard plots to around 2 lakh BPL families in rural areas. Even, the ruling BJP had promised LPG cylinder at Rs 500 to the BPL beneciaries. Also, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government had also provided 100 square yard plots to BPL families along with several other benefits including a water tank and free ration.
As per the latest information shared by the Union government in August last year, Haryana stood at the 8th position in the country in per capita income with the annual per acpita income reached to 296685 in 2022-2023 from 229065 in 2020-21, amid surge of BPL population.