WHY IN NEWS?

  • Recently, Finance Minister in her Interim Budget speech told 25 crore Indians had been pulled out of poverty over the past decade.
MULTIDIMENSONAL POVERTY explained for UPSC

POVERTY FIGURES AS PER BUDGET SPEECH:

  • In the period of 10 years, the Government has assisted 25 crore people to get freedom from multidimensional poverty.
  • Multidimensional poverty in India was found to decline from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23.
  • About 24.82 crore people were escaped from poverty during this period.
  • Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 5.94 crore people escaping poverty, which is followed by Bihar at 3.77 crore and Madhya Pradesh at 2.30 crore.

WHAT IS MULTIDIMENSONAL POVERTY(MDP)?

  • It encompasses the various deprivations experienced by poor people in their daily lives.
  • MDP can be related to various aspects such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living sandards, disempowerment, poor quality of work, the threat of violence, and living in areas that are environmentally hazardous, among others.
  • The indices to calculateMultidimensional Poverty use a range of indicators to calculate a summary poverty figure for a given population.

WHAT IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX (MPI)?

  • As the traditional form of calculating poverty was based either on income levels or, if income data are not available, on expenditure levels.
  • The MPI calculates poverty differently.
  • Globally, the MPI uses 10 indicators covering three main areas:
  1. health
  2. education
  3. standard of living.
These three dimensions have one-third weight each in the final index.
  • MPI is released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
  • The Indian MPI has two extra indicators:
  1. Maternal health (under the health dimension)
  2. Bank accounts (under the standard of living dimension).
  • The extra indicators has been done, according to the NITI Aayog, to align the MPI with India’s national priorities.