Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 8:

Despite escalating conflict and unstable political scenario recently published Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) 2003-04 has revealed that poverty in Nepal has declined significantly.

The survey based on the expenditure capacity of Nepalis indicated that the poverty has slashed down to 30.85 per cent in 2003-04 from 41.76 per cent in 1995-96.

The report stated the remittance increment, high wages of agricultural and other sectors, demographic changes, urbanisation and decline in dependency ratio as major contributors for this quantum leap.

However, prominent development practitioners and economist argue that the government policies are outdated. Talking to The Himalayan Times, Raghav Dhoj Pant, a prominent economist urged National Planning Commission (NPC) to review its development policies.

“The poverty reduction strategy paper on the 10th five-year plan has a target of reducing the poverty to 30 per cent but the NLSS 2003-04 revealed that the poverty is at 30.85 per cent. We are already standing in the position where we were planning to be by the end of the 10th five-year plan. It signifies that our planners do not have clear understanding of the real economic structure,” he said.

“The remittance has supported the decline in poverty butit is not sustainable, the recent developments suggest that the remittance is decreasing which means we would not be able to maintain it,” he said, adding that the gap between rich and poor is increasing as the population is more concentrated in urban areas. “It indicates that development programmes are falling short in remote areas,” Pant said.

A number of innovations taken in educational sector, health, expanding infrastructure and community empowerment have proven to be key aspects for the progress.

However, if compared with the Nepali life expectancy with other South Asian countries, Nepal is at the bottom. Infant and maternal mortality rates rank among the highest in the region. Inequities in supply and demand side of education are also unbalanced.

Less than half of the children inrolled complete the primary education cycle.

Only 10 per cent of those entering grade one reach to grade 10 and less than half of the secondary level student appear in the SLC exams.

Uttam Narayan Malla, deputy director at Central Bureau of Statistics said that the informal sectors expenditures have contributed more to the decline in poverty.

“The government development budget contributes merely 14 per cent to the total expenditure,” Malla said.

In the past eight years, rural poverty has declined only by eight per cent, where as the urban poverty has decreased by 12 per cent. “It suggests that people of vulnerable areas are still devoid of opportunities,” he said.

Though poverty has narrowed but there still prevails a vicious gap between rich and poor. The expenditure inequality has increased from 0.34 in 1995-96 to 0.41 in 2003-04.

“The increase in expenditure inequality could also be seen in growing economies like China and the similar trend could be witnessed in Nepal for few more years,” Malla added.

Invention of policies that promote efficiency with an equitable structure of incentives would help in further reducing marginalisation of poor.

The population growth of the country is estimated at 2.25 per cent, if strong measures could be taken to maintain the population growth or to shutter it down, Nepal could achieve a similar kind of trend in following years, which would be of immense importance in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).