MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN INDIA

  

 

TOPIC: MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN INDIA

 

WRITTEN BY: VASHVI SINGH

LL.B GRADUATE

MARATHA VIDYA PRASARAK SAMAJ LAW COLLEGE, NASHIK

 

EDITED BY: VAISHNAVI PARATE

LLM 1^ST YEAR

SHRI NATHMAL GOENKA LAW COLLEGE, AKOLA

ABSTRACT

This article aims to educate the reader regarding the intensity of deprivation due to multidimensional poverty, the reasons for it, the attempts made by India to improve, and the way forward. The article focuses on two reports multidimensional poverty index and the National multidimensional poverty index to make the reader understand the various indicators of multidimensional poverty and various kinds of deprivations faced by people in India and around the world.

KEYWORDS

POVERTY, LIVING STANDARD, HEALTH, EDUCATION, UNDP, NITI AAYOG, MULTIDIMENSIONAL.

INTRODUCTION

The World Bank defines multidimensional poverty as a state of disadvantage in multiple areas of life, including education, health, living standards, availability of essential amenities, and social integration. The global multidimensional poverty index, released by The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP), tracks deprivation in 10 areas, including health, education, and living standards. It aggregates statistics from 110 developing countries covering 6.1 billion people, which represents 92 per cent of the developing world's population.

 

KEY INDICATORS-

1)Health	a) Nutrition b) Child mortality
2)Education	a) Years of schooling b) School attendance
3)Living standards	a) Cooking fuel b) Sanitation c)Drinking water d)Electricity e) Housing f) Assets

 

1) In 110 nations, 485 million impoverished people suffer from extreme poverty

2) More than fifty per cent (566 million) of the world's poor are children under the age of 18.

3) Rural poverty is prevalent in all world regions, accounting for over 84 per cent of the poor. In South Asia, rural-urban gaps are stark, with approximately 340 million (87.5 per cent) poor people living in rural areas compared to 49 million (12.5 per cent) in urban areas.

4) In 110 countries, 824-991 million of the 1.1 billion impoverished people have no access to proper sanitation, housing, or cooking fuel.

5) Over fifty per cent of the poor have no access to nutrition, electricity, or years of schooling.

6)Around 245 million people lack access to nutrition.

7)Nearly 444 million people lack access to electricity.

8) Except in Europe and Central Asia, nearly fifty per cent of the poor live in households where no individual has finished a minimum of six years of schooling.

 

REASONS FOR MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY

a) Agricultural land deterioration,

b) Climate change and environmental issues.

c)Lack of good governance, corruption and malpractices

d)Gender bias

e) Conflicts, wars, and genocides.

f) Lack of targeted intervention, depending on the needs of a region

g) Unable to provide last-mile connectivity.

 

INDIA’S PERFORMANCE

In India, nearly 230 million people face multidimensional poverty. Despite this stark figure India has seen some remarkable progress-

a)415 million people were lifted out of poverty from 2005-2021.

b) In all the indicators, deprivation has witnessed a remarkable downward trend.

c)Nutritional deprivation has declined from 44.3% to 11.85 and child mortality has declined from 4.5% to 1.5%.

d)Remarkable progress has been witnessed among the poorest states, groups, children and castes that suffer from disadvantage.

NITI Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index, the first of its kind was released in July 2023, it had 3 weighted dimensions-Health, education and standard of living and 12 indicators under it-Nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.

a) Nearly 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty.

b) The fastest decline was seen in the rural areas, from 32.59% to 19.28% in just six years, from 2015 to 2021.

c)The intensity of poverty has also declined to 44% from 47.14%.

d)Uttar Pradesh witnessed the steepest decline with nearly 3.43 crore moving out of multidimensional poverty and Bihar witnessed the fastest decline in absolute terms.

REASONS FOR REDUCTION IN MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY IN INDIA.

1)Targeted interventions and various schemes of government have helped reduce Multidimensional poverty.

2)Initiatives like Poshan Abhiyan, and Swachh Bharat Mission have improved health and sanitation.

3)Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna and Samagra Shiksha have improved housing and education.

 

Way forward

There are still nearly 230 million people facing multidimensional poverty in India, a part of 485 million poor people in developing countries. The way forward should be

a) Targeted intervention with a special focus on women, children and disadvantaged castes., agriculture and climate change.

b) Sector-specific and state-specific intervention, as every state has a unique type of multidimensional poverty.

c)Cooperation and coordination between inter-departments and intra-departments.

d)Improving last-mile connectivity through the help of panchayats, NGOs, and local government.

e) Increasing awareness about government schemes through dedicated portals, social workers, and digital media.

f) Fast and focused governance through citizen-centric mediums, to provide holistic, time-bound grievance redressal.

g) Connecting and collaborating with international institutions to promote connectivity, condemn violence and promote peace and harmony.

h) Entering into bilateral and multilateral agreements with developed and developing states making progress and studying their path and method of reducing inequality and poverty.

 

CONCLUSION

Multidimensional poverty aims to end the intensity and incidence of poverty. The Global multidimensional poverty index should be read, and measures mentioned to reduce poverty and deprivation should be practised. The aim should be to reduce inequality in all spheres and improve the reach of governance. The NITI Aayog report shows the remarkable progress made since 2015, and it’s a step in the right direction, however since nearly 230 million people in India still carry the burden of being deprived multidimensionally at all levels, targeted and regional-specific plans should be made, along with improving the reach of governance and government schemes.

 

References-

1)2023mpireportenpdf.pdf (undp.org)

2) India-National-Multidimensional-Poverty-Index-2023.pdf (niti.gov.in)

3) Multidimensional Poverty Index 2023 (drishtiias.com)coop