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Nepal identifies 356,418 poor households, aims to engage in income generating activities

Xinhua, August 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Nepalese government has identified 356,418 poor households from the country's 25 district as it plans to uplift their economic status by engaging in income generating activities as well as provide various facilities in education and health services.

The Ministry of Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) identified the poor families after conducting a three-year long survey of 1.24 million households in those districts out of country's 75 districts, the government officials said.

The districts were chosen for survey from three different regions -- mountain, hill and plain regions from north to south respectively.

Suresh Pradhan, joint secretary at the ministry told Xinhua that it is the initial identification of poor households which they want to finalize within the mid-October.

"We identified the poor families based on various 17 indicators including their source of income, food consumption level, access to education and health, condition of housing, floor, availability of modern facilities at their home such as radio and television and access to road among others," said Pradhan.

The government has categorized them in three groups--extremely poor, poor and those vulnerable to become poor. "Based on survey, about 50 percent have been categorized under extremely poor, 30 percent under poor and the rest under those vulnerable to become poor," said Pradhan.

The government has planned to give poor identity cards to them and provide various facilities based on the degree of their poverty.

"We plan to give them seed money for opening cooperatives to engage in income generating activities, provide scholarship in education and health insurance to provide them access to affordable health care," said Pradhan.

Nepal's national poverty level stands at 23.8 percent as of 2015, according to National Planning Commission, the main planning body of the country.

The Himalayan country targets to reduce it to 5 percent by 2030 as the country plans to meet its sustainable development goals. Endit