According to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2019 (MPI, India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16, recording the fastest reductions in the multidimensional poverty index values during the period.
- The 2019 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) on July 11, 2019.
About India
- India’s MPI value reduced from 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123 in 2015-16.
- AS per the report, in 2005-2006, the population in India living in multidimensional poverty stood at about 640 million people (55.1 per cent) and this reduced to 369 million people (27.9 per cent) living in poverty in 2015-16.
- In India, Jharkhand reduced the incidence of multidimensional poverty from 74.9 per cent in 2005-06 to 46.5 per cent in 2015-16.
About World
- Across 101 countries, 1.3 billion people—23.1 percent—are multidimensionally poor.
- Two-thirds of multidimensionally poor people live in middle-income countries.
- There is massive variation in multidimensional poverty within countries. For example, Uganda’s national multidimensional poverty rate (55.1 percent) is similar to the Sub-Saharan Africa average (57.5 percent), but the incidence of multidimensional poverty in Uganda’s provinces ranges from 6.0 percent to 96.3 percent, a range similar to that of national multidimensional poverty rates in Sub-Saharan Africa (6.3–91.9 percent).
- Half of the 1.3 billion multidimensionally poor people are children under age 18. A third are children under age 10.
- This year’s spotlight on child poverty in South Asia reveals considerable diversity. While 10.7 percent of South Asian girls are out of school and live in a multidimensionally poor household, that average hides variation: in Afghanistan 44.0 percent do.
- In South Asia 22.7 percent of children under age 5 experience intrahousehold inequality in deprivation in nutrition (where at least one child in the household is malnourished and at least one child in the household is not). In Pakistan over a third of children under age 5 experience such intrahousehold inequality.
- Of 10 selected countries for which changes over time were analysed, India and Cambodia reduced their MPI values the fastest—and they did not leave the poorest groups behind.
- There is wide variation across countries in inequality among multidimensionally poor people—that is, in the intensity of poverty experienced by each poor person. For example, Egypt and Paraguay have similar MPI values, but inequality among multidimensionally poor people is considerably higher in Paraguay.
- There is little or no association between economic inequality (measured using the Gini coefficient) and the MPI value.
- In the 10 selected countries for which changes over time were analysed, deprivations declined faster among the poorest 40 percent of the population than among the total population.
About Multidimensional Poverty Index
- The global MPI scrutinizes a person’s deprivations across 10 indicators in health, education and standard of living (figure 1) and offers a high-resolution lens to identify both who is poor and how they are poor. It complements the international $1.90 a day poverty rate by showing the nature and extent of overlapping
deprivations for each person.
