New Delhi: Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have been ranked as the poorest states in India as per the NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Kerala was ranked the least poor among the states, after Goa, Sikkim and Tamil Nadu.
According to the index, 51.91 per cent population of Bihar is poor, followed 42.16 per cent in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) has been placed fourth in the index, Meghalaya (32.67 per cent) is at the fifth spot. Kerala (0.71 per cent), Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent) have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index.
According to the report by NITI Ayog, India’s national Multidimensional Poverty Index measure uses the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Importantly, as a measure of multidimensional poverty, it captures multiple and simultaneous deprivation faced by households.
The report said that India’s Multidimensional Poverty Index has three equally weighted dimensions, health, education and standard of living – which are represented by 12 indicators namely nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, antenatal care, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank accounts.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework, adopted by 193 countries in 2015, has redefined development policies, government priorities, and metrics for measuring development progress across the world. The Sustainable Development Goals framework, with 17 global goals and 169 targets, is significantly wider in scope and scale relative to its predecessor- the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
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‘The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool which monitors multidimensional poverty, informs evidence-based and focused interventions, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind’ NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said in his foreword. Mr Kumar further said that this baseline report of India’s first ever national Multidimensional Poverty Index measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).
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