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Pradeep Kumar

12/10/21 09:25 AM IST

The 2021 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

In news

Recently, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021 was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI)"

Key findings

Worldwide, across 109 countries and 5.9 billion people:

  • 1.3 billion people are multidimensionally poor.
  • About half (644 million) are children under age 18.
  • Nearly 85 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa (556 million) or South Asia (532 million).
  • More than 67 percent live in middle-income countries.

But what is the day-to-day reality of life for multidimensionally poor people? The data paint a grim picture:

  • 1 billion each are exposed to solid cooking fuels, inadequate sanitation and substandard housing.
  • 788 million live in a household with at least one undernourished person.
  • 568 million lack improved drinking water within a 30-minute roundtrip walk.
Finding in Indian context
  • As castes and tribes are a more prevalent line of social stratification in India, this index presents the incidence and intensity of multidimensional poverty among castes and tribes and among individuals who are not members of any caste or tribe.
  • In India five out of six multidimensionally poor people are from lower tribes or castes.
  • 9.4% of the Scheduled Tribe group lives in multidimensional poverty
  • 33.3% of the Scheduled Caste group lives in multidimensional poverty.
  • 27.2% of the Other Backward Class group lives in multidimensional poverty.
  • In India close to 12% of the population live in female-headed households.
Background
  • The Multidimensional Poverty Index was launched by the UNDP and the OPHI in 2010.
  • MPI is based on the idea that poverty is not unidimensional (not just depends on income and one individual may lack several basic needs like education, health etc.), rather it is multidimensional.
  •  It complements traditional monetary poverty measures by capturing the acute deprivations in health, education, and living standards that a person faces simultaneously.
Source: UNDP

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