NITI Aayog launched National Multidimensional Poverty Index.

NITI Aayog launched National Multidimensional Poverty Index: NITI Aayog released a report titled ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’.

It has been released by Suman Bery, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog. As per this report, 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 and 2019-21.

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This second edition of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows India’s progress in reducing multidimensional poverty between both the surveys, NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21). This report is based on the baseline report of India’s MPI launched in November 2021.

The National MPI tracks deprivations across dimensions of health, education, and standard of living based on 12 SDG-aligned indicators. Nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts are the 12 indicators of SDG.

As per the report, India’s multidimensionally poor percentage has declined from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-2021. Poverty declined in rural areas was faster as compared to urban areas.

Uttar Pradesh registered the largest decline in number of poor. Around 3.43 crore people came out of multidimensional poverty.

This report estimates poverty for 36 States and Union Territories and 707 Administrative Districts. The fastest reduction in the proportion of multidimensional poor has been registered in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan. The MPI value has nearly halved from 0.117 to 0.066 between 2015-16 and 2019-21. The intensity of poverty has reduced from 47% to 44%.

Government focus on improving access to sanitation, nutrition, cooking fuel, financial inclusion, drinking water, and electricity has led to significant improvement. All 12 parameters of the MPI have shown improvement.