The term poverty is not only a material deprivation but also low achievements in education and
health , vulnerabilities and exposure to risk, and lack of voice and empowerment.
All these elements combine to restrict people's capability to escape poverty. Poverty is a complex multidimensional problem., it is
not only a matter of statistics or number. It is a reflection of lack of dynamism in
society and human deprivation. Except hunger and
malnutrition, several other aspects are used to explain poverty, such
as deprivation in terms of clothing, shelter, basic social services including
primary health care, sanitation, education etc., political powerlessness and
socio-cultural marginalization.
In many
developing countries, poverty persists due to three main reasons: slow economic
growth, biased growth pattern concentrated on few sectors, and failure of
government policies. A slow rate of growth has dual effect: low income or low employment
opportunities and increases the rent-seeking behaviour of the politicians in
favour of non-poor like businessmen, large farmers, bureaucrats, trade unions,
and the security personnel. The incidence of poverty remains for long period if
the pattern of growth is urban biased and there is no rural-urban economic linkage. In Nepal other additional factors are playing dominant role.
Trends and Pattern of Poverty
in Nepal: The CBS conducted comprehensive survey in the name
of living standard survey in 1995/96, 2003/04 and 2009/10. This is sown in following
table.
Year
|
Overall
Nepal
|
Rural
|
Urban
|
1995/96
|
42
|
43
|
22
|
2003/04
|
31
|
35
|
10
|
2009/10
|
25
|
27
|
15
|
The table shows that
the poverty declined from 42 to 25 percent. Poverty is higher in rural than in
urban areas. While poverty exists in both rural and urban areas, it
is well known that the problem in developing countries is predominantly of
rural poverty. Agricultural laborers with irregular employment constitute the
major part of the rural population.
The Small Areas
Estimates of Poverty 2011, published by CBS of Nepal, shows
that there is wide range of differences in poverty distribution all over Nepal. Among others, we can observe following facts regarding poverty
distribution in Nepal.
High economic activity
is associated with low poverty. The lowest
poverty districts in Nepal are Kaski and Ilam. Also poverty relatively low in
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Chitwan, Jhapa, Shyanga, among others.
Rain fall, productivity
and poverty are associated in Nepal. Rainfall in Nepal gradually
decreases from eastern region to far western region. In an opposite trend, the
poverty increases from eastern development region to western development
region. There are some exceptional districts like Kaski, Kathmandu and Chitwan,
these districts are tourist centres and high economic activity area. In the similar
trend of rain fall, the land productivity also gradually decreases from eastern
Nepal to far-western Nepal.
Geography is
also a cause of poverty. The difficulty
increases from Terai, Mountain and Hilly region. In the similar trend, the
poverty increases from plain area to mountain area. The weak linkage with market
and high cost of transportation increases cost of production. The high cost of
production reduces the economic activities and increase poverty.
