Gadchiroli has lowest per capita income in state

NAGPUR: While economists always talk of gross domestic product (GDP) of a country, for social scientists per capita income (PCI) is more important as it shows whether the citizens of that country, state or region are affluent or not.
Maharashtra, in spite of its decline in recent years, is still one of the most prosperous states in India. However, there is a huge variation when it comes to PCI of districts.Mumbai has the highest while Gadchiroli has the lowest.
In spite of its co-operative institutions, Marathwada is the poorest region in the state. Konkan and Pune divisions are on the higher side. Most politicians of Western Maharashtra claim that they have given fair treatment to Vidarbha. A comparision of PCI of Pune and Amravati divisions belie this fact.
The figures for Pune division are: Pune – 1, 21,176, Kolhapur – 84,095, Sangli – 71,196, Solapur – 70,465 and Satara – 67,134. On the other hand the figures for Amravati division are: Buldhana - 45,699, Washim – 52,075, Akola – 58,627, Amravati – 63,270 and Yavatmal – 63,469. Surprisingly, Yavatmal has witnessed large number of farmers’ suicides has the highest PCI in the division. Gadchiroli is the poorest district in the state with PCI of 43,058. Nagpur district has the sixth highest PCI in the state after Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Pune, Thane and Raigadh.
The GDP of Nagpur district is paltry when compared to some other ones. Nagpur’s GDP for 2010-11 at current price is 51,336 crore. Against the GDP of Mumbai City and suburban districts (separate figures not available) is 2,28,228 crore, Pune – 1,21,033, Thane – 1,01,281 and Nashik – 54,212 crore. Gadchiroli obviously has the lowest GDP at 4,851 crore.
Industrialized districts have higher GDP even if they have lower PCI due to high population density.
The ratio of below poverty line (BPL) cards and total number of ration cards in a district is also an indicator of economic condition. Mumbai (city + suburban) has 38.46 lakh ration cards but only 30,612 are in BPL category. Pune has 16.51 lakh ration card holders of which 1.6 lakh are BPL. The respective figures for Nagpur are 8.56 lakh and 1.3 lakh.