The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022 was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
Key Highlights
1.2 billion people are multidimensionally poor.
Nearly half of them live in severe poverty.
Half of poor people (593 million) are children under age 18
The number of poor people is highest in Sub Saharan Africa (579 million), followed by South Asia (385 million).
The two regions together are home to 83% of poor people.
India has managed to pull out 415 million people from poverty in the last 15 years.
22.8 crore in India still multi-dimensionally poor, of whom 9.7 crore are children.
India is followed by Nigeria with 9.6 crore.
Two-thirds of these Indian people live in a household in which at least one person is deprived of nutrition.
The incidence of poverty fell from 55.1% in 2005/06 to 16.4% in 2019/21 in the country.
As many as 41.5 crore people moved out of poverty in India during the 15-year period between 2005-06 and 2019-21.
South Asia now has not the lowest number of poor people than Sub-Saharan Africa.
The relative reduction from 2015/2016 to 2019/21 was faster- 11.9% a year compared with 8.1% from 2005/2006 to 2015/2016.
Bihar, the poorest state in 2015-16, saw the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms.
Of the 10 poorest states in 2015/2016, only one (West Bengal) have emerged out of the list in 2019-21.
Across states and union territories in India, the fastest reduction in relative terms was in Goa
It is followed by Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
The incidence of poverty fell from 36.6% in 2015-2016 to 21.2% in 2019-2021 in rural areas and from 9.0% to 5.5% in urban areas.