New DelhiYet another international organization has said that with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) poverty in India was steadily decreasing until the pandemic. report good It is estimated that between 2005-06 and 2019-20, 415 crore people were lifted out of poverty in the country, of which 14 crore were from 2015-16.
This a. comes close on the heels of world bank report was released earlier this month which stated that poverty in India has come down to 10 per cent by 2019-20.
However, these organizations have been unable to accurately estimate the impact of the pandemic on poverty in India due to a paucity of data, reducing any potential enthusiasm among policymakers struggling to revive the economy after the disruptions. Can you
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022 report, jointly brought out by UNDP’s Office of Human Development Report and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), covers 111 developing countries and shows that India’s Progress is not only ahead of countries around the world, but also. contributed to the decline in overall poverty in South Asia.
“The reduction in Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) value in India was sharper in the two most recent periods,” the report said. “MPI estimates based on the recently released 2019-2021 Demographic and Health Survey for the country show that 415 million people were lifted out of poverty between 2005-2006 and 2019/2021 – including about 140 million from 2015-2016 and the country’s MPI value and the incidence of poverty was more than half that, the report said.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index looks at poverty as a whole, and not as a simple result of income levels. The MPI thus measures a person’s deprivation in 10 indicators across three dimensions – health, education and standard of living. All classes are weighted equally. The Health Indicator looks at nutrition and child mortality. The Education Indicator attempts to measure years of schooling and school attendance, while the Standard of Living Indicator measures access to drinking water, sanitation, cooking gas, electricity, housing and property.
“The figures for 2019-2021 show that about 16.4 per cent of India’s population lives in poverty with an average intensity of 42.0 per cent (average deprivation score among people living in multidimensional poverty),” the report said.
It said: “About 4.2 percent of the population live in severe poverty (meaning their deprivation score is 50 percent or higher). About 18.7 percent, roughly the same proportion as 2015–2016, live in poverty. are vulnerable as their deprivation score ranges from 20 percent to 33 percent.
The report also shows that over the past 15 years, different governments have performed similarly in reducing multidimensional poverty. The data shows that between 2005-6 and 2015-16, about 275 million people moved out of multidimensional poverty, an average of 27.5 million people. Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, 140 million people were lifted out of multidimensional poverty, which works out to an average of 28 million people a year.
children still the poorest
Despite years of poverty reduction, the report also pointed to some worrying aspects related to poverty in India.
“Two-thirds of these people[those vulnerable to poverty]live in a household in which at least one person is deprived of nutrition – a worrying statistic,” the report said. “Based on the 2020 population data for India, it has the world’s highest number of poor people (228.9 million), followed by Nigeria (estimated 96.7 million in 2020).”
The report said that children still belong to the poorest age group, with one in five (21.8 percent) children being poor, while one in seven adults (13.9 percent) is. This translates to 9.7 crore poor children, the report said.
The report also said that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on poverty in India cannot be fully assessed as 71 per cent of the Demographic and Health Survey data for the country for 2019-2021 was collected before the pandemic. Were.
However, it noted that “despite progress, India’s population remains vulnerable to the escalating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising food and energy prices”, adding that there is a need to address the ongoing nutrition and energy crisis. Integrated policies should be a priority.
rural-urban divide
According to the report, there is also a rural-urban disparity in the incidence of multidimensional poverty, indicating policy priorities for the government.
“The percentage of poor people in rural areas is 21.2 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent in urban areas,” the report said. “Rural areas are home to about 90 percent of poor people: 205 million of the roughly 229 million poor people live in rural areas—making them a clear priority. Only 23 countries have a higher proportion of poor people living in rural areas.”
In particular, and indictments of several flagship schemes of the government such as PM Ujjwala Yojana (for LPG connections), PM Awas Yojana (for affordable housing), Poshan Abhiyaan (for holistic nutrition), and the Swachh Bharat Mission (cleanliness). As in, the report found that, among poor people, the most common deprivations were in cooking fuel, housing, nutrition and sanitation.
The report also found that India is the only country in South Asia where poverty is more prevalent in female-dominated households than in male-dominated households.
“About 19.7 per cent of the people living in female-dominated households live in poverty, while 15.9 per cent of the people in male-dominated households live in poverty,” the report said. “One in seven households is a female-led household, so approximately 39 million poor people live in a household headed by a woman.”
Going deeper, the report found that the poorest states in India have improved, while remaining the same relative to the rest of the country.
“The fastest reduction among states and union territories occurred in Goa, followed by Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan,” the report said. “The poorest states in relative terms have not caught up. Only one of the 10 poorest states in 2015-2016 (West Bengal) was not among the 10 poorest states in 2019/2021. The rest – Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan – are among the 10 poorest.
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
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