The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) along with Oxford University’s Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) have released their latest report on the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which shows that 25 countries, including India, have successfully halved their global MPI in the last fifteen years. MPI uses indicators like consumption or income, educational attainment, educational enrollment, drinking water, sanitation, and electricity to calculate a summarised poverty figure for a given population, in which a larger figure indicates a higher level of poverty.

The report states that 41.5 cr people in India have moved out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21. Other countries to have halved their global MPI include Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam.

Amends in amenities like sanitation, drinking water, cooking gas, and housing have been made

The report points out that poverty reduction is possible, but challenges in recent times continue to persist as comprehensive data on the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic is not available. India’s numbers in the report show that 41.5 cr people moved out of the poverty line between 2005-06 and 2019-21.

As per the numbers, distressed classes, states, and groups are making the fastest progress. India’s multidimensionally poor and deprived population has declined from 44.3% in 2005–06 to 11.8% in 2019–21. The infant mortality rate has also come down to 1.5% from 4.5%. The number of citizens deprived of cooking gas and sanitation has decreased from 53.9% to 13.9%. The number of citizens deprived of drinking water and electricity has decreased from 29.1% to 2.1%, while the number of homeless citizens has decreased from 44.9% to 13.6%.

Out of 6.1 bn people in 110 countries around the world included in the report, 1.1 bn live in poverty. Two-thirds of these citizens are from countries with moderate incomes. The poverty rate among children is 27.7% while among adults it is 13.4%. Poverty mostly affects rural areas. 84% of the poor live in rural areas.

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