Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022

• The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) recently released the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022.

What are the Index's main highlights?

Global Information:

• Multidimensional poverty affects 1.2 billion people.
• Children under the age of 18 accounts for half of the poor (593 million).
• Sub-Saharan Africa has the poorest people (579 million), followed by South Asia (385 million). Together, the two regions are home to 83% of the poor.

Pandemic Effects:

• However, the data do not reflect post-pandemic changes.
• According to the report, the Covid-19 pandemic could halt global poverty reduction progress by 3-10 years.
• According to the World Food Programme's most recent food security data, the number of people living in food crises or worse increased to 193 million in 2021.

What are the most important findings about India?

Data:

• India has by far the poorest people in the world, with 22.8 billion, followed by Nigeria with 9.6 billion.
• Two-thirds of these people live in a household where at least one person is malnourished.

Poverty Reduction:

• Poverty in the country has decreased from 55.1% in 2005/06 to 16.4% in 2019/21.
• All ten MPI indicators saw significant reductions in deprivation, resulting in a more than halving of the MPI value and incidence of poverty.
• During the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21, 41.5 crore people in India were lifted out of poverty.
• The improvement in India's MPI has significantly contributed to the reduction of poverty in South Asia.
• South Asia now has a higher proportion of poor people than Sub-Saharan Africa.

Relative Poverty Reduction:

• From 2015/2016 to 2019/2021, the relative reduction was faster: 11.9% per year, compared to 8.1% from 2005/2006 to 2015/2016.

• State performance: Bihar, the poorest state in 2015-16, saw the fastest decrease in MPI value in absolute terms.
• Bihar's poor percentage fell from 77.4% in 2005-06 to 52.4% in 2015-16 and 34.7% in 2019-21.
• Bihar's poor percentage fell from 77.4% in 2005-06 to 52.4% in 2015-16 and 34.7% in 2019-21.
• However, in relative terms, the poorest countries have yet to catch up.
• Only one of the ten poorest states in 2015/2016 (West Bengal) is still on the list in 2019-21.
• The remaining states (Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan) are among the poorest in the country.
• In India's states and union territories, Goa had the fastest relative reduction, followed by Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan.
• Poverty among Children: Although India still has the poorest children in the world, poverty among children has fallen faster in absolute terms.
• In India, more than one in every five children is poor, compared to one in every seven adults.

Poverty Reduction in the Region:

• Poverty incidence in rural areas fell from 36.6% in 2015-2016 to 21.2% in 2019-2021, and in urban areas from 9.0% to 5.5%.

What exactly is the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (GMPI)?

• The index is a critical international resource that assesses acute multidimensional poverty in over 100 developing countries.
• It was first introduced in 2010 by the OPHI and the UNDP's Human Development Report Office.
• The MPI tracks deprivation across ten indicators, including health, education, and standard of living, and includes both the incidence and intensity of poverty.

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