Kathmandu, 9 June: It has been found that around 1 million poor families have been identified across the country. The Ministry of Land Management and Poverty Alleviation has been running the Poor Household Identification Program for the past 12 years to identify poor families.
Among these poor families, the ministry has classified them into three categories: extremely poor, poor, and relatively poor. According to senior officials from the ministry, preliminary data shows that the total number of poor families across all three categories is approximately 1 million nationwide.
According to Pushpa Joshi, Undersecretary at the Ministry and Senior Statistical Officer of the Poor Identification Standards Division, the ministry has so far completed the Poor Household Identification Program in all 77 districts. Among them, data analysis has been completed in 64 districts, and preliminary data has been received from 10 districts. However, data from the three districts of the Kathmandu Valley—Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur—has yet to be made available.
“In the 64 districts where the identification process has been completed, a total of 886,801 families have been identified as poor,” Joshi said. “Preliminary data from the 10 other districts indicates that about 80,000 families have been identified as poor. However, data from Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur has not yet been received for the Poor Household Identification Program.”
According to him, the ten districts from which preliminary data on poor household identification has been received are: Ilam, Kaski, Chitwan, Jhapa, Tehrathum, Nawalparasi (East), Nawalparasi (West), Parbat, Morang, and Sunsari.
A senior official from the ministry stated that based on the identified poor households in 64 districts, the preliminary data from the 10 districts, and the estimated number of poor families in Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur, officials from the Poor Household Identification Division estimate that there are approximately 1 million poor families across the country.
According to Senior Statistical Officer Pushpa Joshi, among the districts where the identification process has been completed and data analyzed, the highest number of poor families has been found in Sarlahi, while the lowest is in Manang.
He stated that Sarlahi has a total of 50,248 poor families, whereas Manang has only 59 poor families identified.
Apart from Sarlahi, Joshi noted that most districts in the Far-Western region also have a high number of poor families.
There are 13,815 poor families in Bajura. Among them, 6,494 are extremely poor, 4,262 are moderately poor, and 3,059 are relatively poor.
In Kalikot, the total number of families is 12,684. Among the poor families, 5,985 are extremely poor, 3,951 are moderately poor, and 2,748 are relatively poor.
According to the ministry, in Bajhang, there are 7,944 extremely poor families, 5,013 moderately poor families, and 3,501 relatively poor families.
According to the ministry, Mustang is also one of the districts with very few poor families. Among the total families in Mustang, only 6 have been found to be extremely poor. Similarly, 14 families are moderately poor, and 39 families are relatively poor.
The ministry not only identifies poor families but also distributes Poor Family Identity Cards. When distributing the cards, the ministry provides:
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Red cards for extremely poor families,
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Yellow cards for moderately poor families, and
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Blue cards for relatively poor families.
According to the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation, nearly 2 billion rupees were spent between 2075 and 2078 BS for the program.
The Poor Household Identification and Identity Card Distribution Coordination Board was established in 2070 BS, marking the beginning of the program to identify poor families and distribute identity cards.
In 2075 BS, the government dissolved the coordination board and formed the Poor Identification and Standards Division under the Ministry of Land Management and Poverty Alleviation to continue the work.
