Ranchi, July 15: Social activists are apprehensive that lakhs of families of Jharkhand will be pushed out from the below poverty line (BPL) category once the Centre-sponsored socio- economic census is carried out on the basis of the new poverty parameters this November.

According to the new guidelines, households without shelter, destitutes living on alms, manual scavengers, primitive tribe groups and legally released bonded labourers will directly qualify for the BPL list.

Another criterion says that only 34 per cent — 41.8 per cent rural and 25.7 per cent urban — of the state’s total population will get the BPL status as recommended by Suresh Tendulkar Committee, set up in 2005.

Jharkhand, with a population of about 3.22 crore, has a total of about 70 lakh households. Hence, only about 22.8 lakh families will feature on the BPL list.

“At present, there are about 35 lakh BPL families in the state. If the new poverty cut-off is followed, a large number of deserving families will be excluded from the BPL list,” said Balram, a social activist and state representative of Supreme Court Commissioner for Right to Food.