The housing and urban poverty alleviation ministry has said in a recent draft report that the urban poor in the country have risen by at least seven percent of the total urban population in the last one decade.

The findings of the committee were first reported in The Indian Express.

A committee, headed by chief statistician Pronab Sen, has found that the tier II and tier III cities which are relatively smaller than the metros, have registered a much higher growth in slum populations. The final report on the same would be submitted in a month.

The 2001 census estimated the number of urban poor or slum population residing in towns and cities at 52.4 million or 21 percent of the total urban population of around 250 million. Whereas, the latest report by the ministry states the same at 28 percent. One of the reasons for such distinction being that the 2001 census took into account only notified slums in 1,764 towns across the country which led to underreporting.

The committee, on the other hand, has taken into account all 5,161 towns and has also modified the definition of a slum as followed by the Registrar General of India (RGI) which conducts the census. The RGI would now identify enumeration blocks where more than 20 households exist without a concrete roof, and possess slum-like characteristics.

As of now, only slums that had been notified by the local authorities and consisted of at least 60-70 households were taken into account.

The estimates would help in better targeting of social sector schemes.