NEW DELHI : As many as 415 million Indians moved out of poverty in the 15-year period between 2005/2006 and 2019/2021, the UN said in a report on Tuesday.
The latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.
The report analysed trends from 2000 to 2022, focusing on 81 countries with comparable data over time.
It reveals that 25 countries successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years.
These countries include Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam, the report said.
“Countries halved their MPI in periods as short as four to 12 years, demonstrating the feasibility of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of halving poverty according to national definitions within 15 years,” it added.
China lifted 69 million people out of poverty in 2010-14 and Indonesia 8 million in 2012-17.
The report said that 1.1 billion of 6.1 billion people (about 18% of global population) still live in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) 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,” the report said.
“Although low-income countries constitute only 10% of the population included in the MPI, these are where 35% of all poor people reside,” it added.
According to the UN, children under 18 years of age account for half of MPI-poor people (566 million) with the poverty rate among children is 27.7%, as compared to 13.4% among adults.
“Poverty predominantly affects rural areas, with 84% of all poor people living in rural areas. Rural areas are poorer than urban areas across all regions of the world,” it added.
However, the report by the UN stated that the lack of post-pandemic data for most of the 110 countries covered by the global MPI restricts the agency’s understanding of the pandemic’s effects on poverty.
As we reach the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we can clearly see that there was steady progress in multidimensional poverty reduction before the pandemic, said Pedro Conceicao, Director of the Human Development Report Office at the UN.
“However, the negative impacts of the pandemic in dimensions such as education are significant and can have long-lasting consequences,” Conceicao added.
Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
Updated: 11 Jul 2023, 10:10 PM IST