Sharp drop in poverty levels

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The number of poor people living below the poverty line had dropped from 15.2 percent in 2006/2007 to 6.5 percent in 2012.

According to the Annual Report 2012 issued by the Finance and Planning Ministry the most encouraging feature is that there was a drop in poverty levels in all geographical areas and across all sectors.

Poverty in estate areas which had been much higher than in the rest of the country had dropped from 32 percent to 11.4 percent between 2006 and 2010 and had dropped further to 6.2 percent in 2012. During the same period, inequality also dropped from 0.4 to 0.36 percent as reflected in the Household and Income Expenditure Survey (HIES), the report said.

The overall development and poverty reduction initiatives that had been implemented helped the country to perform equally well with regard to the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

Sri Lanka had performed better compared to many other countries in relation to child mortality, nutrition, schooling, access to safe drinking water and sanitation, indicating the effectiveness of the Government’s poverty reduction strategy by effectively reaching the targeted poverty segments in the country.