Sunday, 26 Oct, 2025
By: Lakshita Bhagat
Despite the staggering progress, the report notes that India still faces ‘daunting’ challenges in the elimination of poverty. Image source: IANS
The reduction in acute poverty is noted to have been the fastest among the most backward states and groups
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) released the latest edition of the Global Multidimensional Poverty (MPI) Index 2022 Report ‘Unpacking deprivation bundles to reduce multidimensional poverty’ on 17 October 2022. Taking into account three key dimensions of health, education and standard of living, the MPI measures ‘acute multidimensional poverty’ across 111 developing countries. The report finds that 1.2 billion people in these countries live in acute multidimensional poverty. Most people battling extreme poverty live in Sub-Saharan Africa (579 million), followed by South Asia (385 million).
India leads in reducing acute multidimensional poverty
According to the report, 415 million people have come out of extreme poverty in India in 15 years. The reduction in acute poverty is noted to have been the fastest among the most backward states and groups (marginal castes, those residing in rural areas, and children). Due to its feat of having more than halved the MPI value and incidence of poverty between 2005/06 and 2019/21, the report notes that India has demonstrated how the Sustainable Development Goal 1.2 of ‘reducing at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030’ can be achieved.
People who are multidimensionally poor and deprived across 10 MPI indicators, India
Source: Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022, UNDP and OPHI
India has performed remarkably well in lowering its MPI value, which has come down to 0.069 in 2019/21 from 0.282 in 2005/06. Correspondingly, the incidence of poverty dropped significantly ‘from 55.1 percent to 27.7 percent to 16.4 percent’. Importantly, India has reduced acute poverty across all 10 MPI deprivations found among poor people, which includes nutrition, child mortality, school attendance, years of schooling, drinking water, and electricity among others (see the chart above).
Over the decades, various governments at the Centre and States have implemented several policies and programmes targeting poverty (e.g. National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), universal education (e.g. Right to Education, National Education Policy), nutrition for children (e.g. midday meals), subsidised food grains (e.g. PDS), electrification, institutional deliveries (e.g. Janani Suraksha Yojana), clean cooking fuel (e.g. Ujjwala Yojana) and provision of safe drinking water, among a plethora of other targeted programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission. The MPI report also alluded that public policies might have played an important role in the reduction of multidimensional poverty.
Way Ahead
Despite the staggering progress, the report notes that India still faces ‘daunting’ challenges in the elimination of poverty, which could have worsened during the Covid-19 crisis as the data do not cover the post-Covid situation. Finally, India should continue to fight the monster of poverty on a war footing and continue to meet its national and international development goals.
