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The National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report 2021 was just released by NITI Aayog. Between NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21), this report examines India’s efforts to reduce multidimensional poverty. under 2014, just seven states had fewer than 10% of their people living under multidimensional poverty, but by 2018, that number had increased to 14 states.
Income, per capita expenditure, and consumption were used to assess national poverty. Since NITI Aayog was founded, the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, which measures health, education, and living conditions, has been examined. NITI Aayog published the National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report 2021. India’s first national MPI measure is based on the 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS 4th round). The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI): A Progress Review 2023 based on NFHS 5th round (2019-21) examined India’s multidimensional poverty reduction between NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21).
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) of NITI Aayog is based on three dimensions: health, education, and standard of living, each with a one-third weighting in the index. These dimensions are comprised of 12 subcategories: nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of education, school attendance, heating fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.
The MPI is the sum of the two values below.
- The headcount number shows how many people are poor.
- The level of poverty, which shows how poor people are.
Target 1.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to reduce “at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions” by 2030. The National Multidimensional Poverty Index is a key measure of how well this goal is being met.
Between 2015-16 and 2019-21, more than 135 million people, or 13.5 crore people, got out of multidimensional poverty.
The most recent study says that India is on track to reach this goal. From 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-21, the number of “multidimensionally poor” people in India has gone down by 9.89%. That is, the number of people who are poor in more than one way has gone down from 1 in 4 to almost 1 in 7. Between 2015-16 and 2019-21, more than 135 million people, or 13.5 crore people, got out of multidimensional poverty.
The report also shows that the number of poor people in rural places and in cities is very differentThe rate of multidimensional poverty in rural areas decreased from 32.59% in 2015-16 to 19.28% in 2019-21. The comparable figure for urban areas dropped from 8.65% to 5.27%.
In the five years between NFHS surveys, the number of multidimensional poor in Bihar went from more than 51% to less than 34% faster than in any other state. Even though there has been a big drop, Bihar still has the most people who are poor in more than one way. Every third person in the state falls into this group. In fact, Bihar is the only state in India where more than a third of the people live in mixed poverty.
The MPI number is also dropping quickly in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. In NFHS-5 (2019-21), 20.63% and 22.93% of people in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are multidimensionally poor. This is down from 36.57% and 37.68% in 2015-16.
In the last five years, the most MPI poor people got out of poverty in Uttar Pradesh, with 3.43 crore people doing so. This was followed by Bihar, with 2.25 crore, and Madhya Pradesh, with 1.36 crore people getting out of multidimensional poverty. More than half of the people who got out of mixed poverty during this time lived in one of these three states.
The poverty rate in all of South India is well below 10%.
As for the other states, less than 1% of the people in Goa and Kerala lived in mixed poverty. In the five years that were looked at, the number of states where less than 10% of people live in mixed poverty has doubled. The study says that in 2015-16, less than 10% of the people in only seven states (Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Kerala) were living in multidimensional poverty. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, and Uttarakhand were among the 14 states with a poverty rate of 10% or below in 2019–21. All five of the states in southern India are represented here.
Significant advancements in areas such as nutrition, years of schooling, cleanliness, and cooking fuel.
In the five years studied, there was an improvement across all 12 indices measuring health, education, and standard of living. From 2015–16 to 2019–21, sanitation deprivation decreased by 21.8% points, and cooking fuel deprivation decreased by 14.6% points.
There is always room for improvement, although most of the indicators included under Standard of Living have been major contributors to the decrease in MPI. That’s right, over 40% still don’t have access to basic necessities like heat and shelter. Similarly, over 30% do not have access to basic needs like clean water and food. It is important to emphasise that there has been no noticeable improvement in health and education indices (such as infant and child mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, etc.).
Credit goes to national and regional development initiatives
According to the research, the rise in MPI may be traced back to intentional national and regional development initiatives. SBM, JJM, Poshan Abhiyan, Samagra Shiksha, Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), PMUY, PMJDY, and PMAY all received praise for their roles in propelling India’s development.
Plans to improve the quality of life may have a wide reach in terms of numbers, but it remains to be seen if they are also useful in terms of quality. For example, Under the PM Ujjwala Yojana, the average number of refills of petrol tanks is low. Also, because people’s health and education didn’t improve quickly enough, there needs to be more targeted help and bigger funds for these areas.
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