National Multidimensional Poverty Index

Over 24.8 crore people moved out of poverty in India in nine years: NITI report.

The Index

• Released by - Niti Aayog, which is the nodal agency to release Multidimensional Poverty (MDP) report for States and Union Territories.
• Purpose - Plays a role in assessing advancements towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1.2.

SDG 1.2. - By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to regional definitions.

Multidimensional Poverty - Poverty – According to the World Bank, those who are unable to earn 2.15 dollar per day are living in extreme poverty.

• As per UNDP, it is the measure of poverty that considers various deprivations experienced by people in their daily lives including poor health, insufficient education and low standard of living.
• It is a means to capture the complexity of poverty that considers dimensions of well-being beyond just monetary poverty.

Indicators of National MPI - India’s national MPI has 3 equally weighted dimensions, which are then represented by 12 other indicators.

• 1. Health
  2. Education
  3. Standard of living
• These 12 include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.

• Sub-indices of National MPI:
  1. Headcount ratio (H): How many are poor?
  2. Intensity of poor (I): How poor are the poor?
• Formula - MPI= H*I
• If the deprivation score (sum of the weighted status of all the indicators) for an individual is more than 0.33, then an individual is considered multidimensionaly poor.

Global MPI Report - It is jointly published by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

• It is based on the Alkire-Foster (AF) methodology that captures overlapping deprivations in health, education, and living standards.

Findings

• Report based on - The report said the recent National MPI was based on National Family Health Surveys 4 (2015-16) and 5 (2019-21).
• As many as 24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in nine years to 2022-23, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh registering the largest decline.
• At the State level, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 5.94 crore people escaping poverty followed by Bihar at 3.77 crore and Madhya Pradesh at 2.30 crore.
• The rate of decline of multidimensional poverty has accelerated during the period 2013-14 to 2022-23.
• All 12 indicators of MPS have shown remarkable improvement during this period.