13.74% of Telangana population poor: Niti Aayog report

HYDERABAD: The percentage of poor in Telangana is 13.74, according to a Niti Aayog report. The State stood in 18th place in the country in the National Multidimensional Poverty Index. The population of the poor is highest in Adilabad, Mahabubnagar and Nizamabad, among the erstwhile 10 districts in the State. However, according to the report, availability of nutrition in Telangana is better than Gujarat, West Bengal, Maharashtra and even Karnataka. 

In Gujarat, 41.37 per cent, Maharashtra- 36.09 per cent, West Bengal - 33.62 per cent and in Karnataka - 33.56 per cent population are deprived of proper nutrition. Whereas in Telangana 31.10 per cent are deprived of proper nutrition.

A household is considered deprived if any child between the ages of 0 and 59 months or woman between the ages of 15 and 49 years or man between the ages of 15 and 54 years - for whom nutritional information is available - is found to be undernourished.

Population deprived due to Child and Adolescent Mortality is 1.38 per cent in Telangana. The State is in 22nd-second place and it is better positioned than its sibling State, Andhra Pradesh. A household is considered to be deprived if any child or adolescent under 18 years of age has died in the five-year period preceding the survey. 

According to the report, 12.79 per cent of the state's population is deprived of assets. The household is deprived of assets, if the residents do not own more than one of these assets: radio, TV, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator, and does not own a car or truck.