MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX – REPORTS & INDICES

News: Multidimensional Poverty Index reduction under the NDA is flawed

 

What's in the news?

       The Multidimensional Poverty Index exaggerates the National Democratic Alliance’s success in fighting deprivation.

 

Multidimensional Poverty Index:

       MPI is published annually by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

 

Key takeaways:

       This report presents a compact update on the state of multidimensional poverty in the world. 

       It compiles data from 110 developing countries covering 6.1 billion people, accounting for 92 percent of the population in developing countries. 

 

Objective of MPI:

       It tells an important and persistent story about how prevalent poverty is in the world and provides insights into the lives of poor people, their deprivations and how intense their poverty is—to inform and accelerate efforts to end poverty in all its forms. 

 

Data highlights of MPI 2023:

1. Reduction in global MPI values:

       According to the report, 25 countries, including India, successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years, showing that rapid progress is attainable. 

       These countries include Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam.

2. Data on India:

       As many as 415 million people in India were lifted out of poverty from 2005-06 to 2019-21, according to the latest update of its global Multidimensional Poverty Index. 

       This would be a substantial fraction of our population, now estimated at over 1.4 billion. 

       Those who are poor and deprived of cooking fuel fell from 52.9% to 13.9%, and those short of proper sanitation from 50.4% to 11.3%. 

       The report noted that deprivation in all indicators declined in India and the poorest States and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.

3. Regions with existing poverty:

       According to the 2023 release, 1.1 billion out of 6.1 billion people (just more than 18%) live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries. 

       Sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) are home to approximately five out of every six poor people.

       Nearly two-thirds of all poor people (730 million people) live in middle-income countries, making action in these countries vital for reducing global poverty. 

       Although low-income countries constitute only 10% of the population included in the MPI, these are where 35% of all poor people reside.