Jajarkot, June 13
Poverty is endemic in the mid-western district of Jajarkot, if government data are anything to go by.
As per national census taken about five years ago, there are 30,000 households in Jajarkot with the total population of 1,71,000. Out of this population, 80,000 people are poor. This is based on the census that covered 27, 407 households.
Bhesh Raj Rijal, member of the Poor Household Coordination Board Secretariat, said 8,474 households in Jajarkot are poor, adding that they are collating data from another 4,938 households. Based on data collected on the basis of 18 indicators, we can say that more than 13,000 households in Jajarkot are poor, Rijal said.
We are mobilising all mechanisms to prepare details of all poor households in the district within a month, Rijal said, noting that they have to do the same by Asar-end (within a month from now). Eighteen indicators like habitation, drinking water, electricity, road, farm productivity, employment, access to health and education and geographical location point that almost half of the district’s population is below the poverty line.
These pointers show that almost 80,000 people in the district are below the poverty line. Social mobilisers working with different programmes of the district development committee and VDC employees had collected data on poor households. Citing this, local people have alleged data collectors of collecting details of government employees and rich people instead of the real poor.
At a programme held recently in district headquarters Khalanga, government employees, journalists and civil society representatives had pointed that the survey may not have covered real poor households for want of a credible mechanism to do the same.
Karvir Shahi, president of CPN-UML’s Jajarkot chapter, said data on poor households may not be reliable, pointing that skilled human resources were not mobilised for the job and adequate salary was not provided. Janardan Gautam, chief district officer, said he had received widespread complaints that enumerators did not visit every poor household for data collection. He conceded inability to provide adequate training to enumerators before sending them on the field.
Sarita Singh, Nepali Congress leader, said identification of poor households may be full of flaws as district authorities sent the details to the centre without bothering to check facts.
Rijal said they have a provision that allows poor households left out during data collection to lodge complaint with the board secretariat.
