New Delhi: A Niti Aayog report on Monday said that approximately 13.5 crore people in India transitioned out of multidimensional poverty in five years ended March 2021. This progress was measured by improvements in healthcare, education, and living standards, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh registering the most rapid reduction in poverty during this period.
Notably, the report ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’ was released by the government think tank’s Vice-Chairman Suman Bery, in the presence of Members of NITI Aayog VK Paul and Arvind Virmani, and BVR Subrahmanyam, CEO NITI Aayog.
According to the second edition of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), India has registered a significant decline of 9.89 percentage points in the number of India’s multidimensionally poor from 24.85 per cent in 2015-16 to 14.96 per cent in 2019-2021. While rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.59 per cent to 19.28 per cent, urban areas saw a reduction in poverty from 8.65 per cent to 5.27 per cent.
"A record 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21," said the report.
According to PTI, the National MPI measures simultaneous deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by 12 SDG-aligned indicators. These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.
The Niti Aayog in its report said that marked improvement is witnessed across all the 12 indicators, adding the report follows the Alkire-Foster methodology developed by its technical partners -- the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the latest update of the global MPI released by UNDP and OPHI at the University of Oxford, a total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021.
The report has attributed the decline in poverty to the government's dedicated focus on improving access to sanitation, nutrition, cooking fuel, financial inclusion, drinking water, and electricity.
According to the report, the fastest reduction in the proportion of multidimensional poor was observed in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan.
Between 2015-16 and 2019-21, the MPI value nearly halved from 0.117 to 0.066 and the intensity of poverty reduced from 47 per cent to 44 per cent.
Based on the latest National Family Heath Survey [NFHS-5 (2019-21)], this second edition of the National MPI represents India’s progress in reducing multidimensional poverty between the two surveys, NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21).
Niti Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam said that India is on the path of achieving SDG Target 1.2 (of reducing multidimensional poverty by at least half) much ahead of the stipulated timeline of 2030, reported PTI.
The report builds on the baseline report of India’s National MPI launched in November 2021.