Data says half of Jajarkot living below poverty line

Jajarkot, June 12

Data collected by social mobilisers of various DDC programmes and staffers of the VDCs in Jajarkot showed that virtually half the population in the district is living under the poverty line.

The data was based on 18 different indexes of poor household identification such as drinking water supply, electricity, job, education, agricultural produce, and health facilities, among others.

The findings revealed that almost 80,000 people were living under the poverty line in the district.

As many as 27,407 families were surveyed, and 13,995 families were found to be living under the poverty line.

According to the National census of 2011, Jajarkot has a population of around 1,71,000.

Meanwhile, at a programme, representatives of political parties, journalists, and civil society representatives said that the data may be inaccurate as many poor families might not have been included and some families who didn’t belong to the category might have been included, as the data collection methodology was unreliable.

Bhesraj Rijal, member of Poor Household Cooperation Coordination Board Secretariat, said that a provision had been made to allow families misrepresented in the data to file an application.

Three years ago, the government had started poor family identification and identity distribution programmes in 25 districts to operate state welfare programmes effectively.

The list of poor families will be made public and identity distribution will kick off from next year.