Gandhinagar: A total of 47,84,122 people have come out of poverty during 2015-16 to 2019-21 in Gujarat, which is about 5.13 % of the population, as indicated in a report from Niti Aayog.

The Niti Aayog report titled ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress of Review 2023’ reveals that approximately 13.5 crore individuals have come out of poverty across the nation between 2015-16 and 2019-21. In the state of Gujarat, the percentage of poor people in the population has decreased from 18.47% to 11.66% within the same timeframe.

This decline in poverty rates was higher in rural areas compared to urban regions. In 2015-16, the population of poor people in rural parts of the state was 27.25 %, while over the next 5 years, it decreased by 17.15% in 2019-21. In urban regions, the poverty rate was 6.49% in 2015–16, which has decreased to 3.81% in 2019–21, according to the Niti Aayog report. The report attributes the reduction in poverty to the significant impact of various government schemes.

Among all districts in the state, Rajkot recorded the lowest percentage of impoverished individuals at 3.98%. Ahmedabad ranks fifth, with 5.49% of its population living in poverty. On the other hand, Dahod has the highest poverty rate among all districts in the state at 38.27%. DeshGujarat