Bihar

• 27 Nov 2021

According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, 2021, Bihar is the Poorest State in the Country.

Why in News

Recently, Bihar has been ranked as the poorest state in the country in the Multidimensional Poverty Index, 2021 released by NITI Aayog.

Key Points

• According to the report, 51.91 percent of the population of Bihar is poor. Whereas Kerala is the least poor state in the country, only 0.71 percent of its population is poor.
• Bihar's 51.88 percent population (highest in the country) is malnourished, while Sikkim is the least malnourished state in the country.
• According to the data of the National Family Health Survey-4 (2015-16) of the report, 39.86 percent of the population of Bihar was away from access to electricity, while according to the provisional data of the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-20) Bihar's only 3.7 Only percent of the population is out of reach of electricity, which shows the remarkable progress of Bihar in the field of electricity.
• Bihar has got a score of 0.265 in this multidimensional index, out of which the MPI score of rural areas is 0.286 and the MPI score of the urban areas is 0.117, which indicates that the rural areas of Bihar have more poverty.
• Kishanganj is the poorest district of Bihar, where 64.75 percent of the population is poor. On the other hand, Araria (64.65 percent), Madhepura (64.35 percent), East Champaran (64.13 percent) and Supaul (64.10 percent) are the poorest districts.
• Patna is the least poor district of Bihar, where only 29.20 percent of the population is poor. Bhojpur (40.50 percent), Siwan (40.55 percent), Rohtas (40.74 percent) and Munger (40.99 percent) are the least poor districts of Bihar.