“The incidence and intensity of poverty are more important in determining poverty based on income alone”. In this context analyse the latest United Nations Multidimensional Poverty Index Report. (UPSC IAS Mains 2020 General Studies Paper – 2)
- According to the World Bank, Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includeslow incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary forsurvival with dignity.
- A common method used to estimate poverty is based on the income or consumption levels and if the income falls below a given level, then the household is said to be poor. According to the World Bank population living under $1 income/day is considered poor. Similarly in India, as per the Rangarajan committee (2014), the poverty line is estimated as Monthly Per Capita Expenditure of 1407 Rs. in urban areas and 972 Rs. in rural areas.
- Based on income, incidence of poverty is measured by the poverty ratio, which is the ratio of the number of poorto the total population. Butthe extent of poverty is not equal among the poors. Intensity of poverty estimates the depth of poverty by considering how far, on average, the poor are from that poverty line.
However, these income based estimates, offer a quantity based assessment by simply counting the poor below the poverty line, and remain limited at the qualitative level.
UN’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
- MPI is based on the idea that poverty not just depends on income and an individual may lack several basic needs like education, health, etc.
- The UN’s MPI presents quantitative as well as qualitative aspects of poverty. It uses three dimensions viz., Education, Health and living standard and gives score between 0-1.
- According to MPI report 2020, around 1.3 billion people are still living in multidimensional poverty.
- In 2019, the burden of multidimensional poverty disproportionately falls on children-half of multidimensionally poor were below 18.
- India was ranked 62nd among 107 countries with an MPI score of 0.123 with 27.9% head count.
- In 2019, around 19.3% of Indian population is vulnerable to multidimensional poverty.
- The report mentions that India lifted as many as 270 million people out of multidimensional poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16.
- MPI also reflects that COVID-19 is having a profound impact on the development landscape.
The MPI methodology shows aspects in which the poor are deprived and helps to reveal inter connections among those deprivations. Thus enabling policymakers to target resources and design policies more effectively. The MPI methodology can be, and often is, modified to generate national measures of Multidimensional Poverty that reflect local cultural, economic, climatic and other factors.
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