India’s progress against multidimensional poverty

India’s progress against multidimensional poverty

Article:

1. The article highlights India’s progress in eradicating multidimensional poverty

Important analysis:

Multidimensional poverty:

2. Multidimensional poverty goes beyond the economic/income-based approach and takes into account different depreciations experienced by a poor person- such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standard, disempowerment, poor quality of work and threat from violence.

Multidimensional poverty index (MPI)

3. Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed in 2010 by the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
4. The MPI has three dimensions: health, education, and standard of living. These are measured using 10 indicators

Multidimensional Poverty in India

5. According to MPI 2018, India has lifted 271 million people out of multi-dimensional poverty in the 10 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16.
6. Poverty rate fell from 55% to around 28% over the 10-year period.
7. Multidimensional poverty is particularly acute and significant in the four states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh
8. Delhi, Kerala and Goa have the lowest incidence of multidimensional poverty.

Note: The MPI used data from the third and fourth rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) to measure multidimensional poverty across 640 districts.

Significance of MPI:

9. The MPI creates a vivid picture of people living in poverty within and across countries, regions and at a global level.
10. MPI is not limited to an income-based measure of poverty but complements income measures of poverty and captures the multiple, overlapping disadvantages of poor people.

This is important because overlapping deprivations undermine people’s capacity to develop human capital and entraps them into the vicious cycle of poverty.

11. MPI can be used to direct public resources to critical areas more efficiently. It can be used as a powerful tool to combat poverty and achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs)