Context: Recently, the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme have released the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2020.

About Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2020

• Across 107 developing countries, there are 1.3 billion people i.e. 22 percent of the global population that lives in multidimensional poverty.
• Children show higher rates of multidimensional poverty i.e. half of multidimensionally poor people (644 million) are children under age 18.
• About 84.3 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Sub-Saharan Africa (558 million) and South Asia (530 million).
• 67 percent of multidimensionally poor people are in middle-income countries.
• The countries with the fastest reduction in MPI value in absolute terms were Sierra Leone, Mauritania and Liberia, followed by Timor-Leste, Guinea and Rwanda.

India’s position in Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2020

• More than 270 million people in India were lifted out of poverty from 2005 to 2016 i.e. the largest by any country in that period.
• The study has found that four countries i.e. India, Armenia, Nicaragua and North Macedonia, have reduced their MPI by half or more in 5.5 to 10.5 years.
• It also states that three South Asian nations i.e. India, Bangladesh and Nepal were among the 16 fastest countries to reduce their MPI value.
• According to the study, 55.1 per cent of the population in India lived under multidimensional poverty in 2005-06 and in 2015-16, it came down to 27.9 per cent.
• As of 2015-16, the intensity of deprivation was 43.9 per cent, while the population under severe multidimensional poverty was 8.8 per cent.
• According to the study, 37.7 crore people in India lived under multidimensional poverty as of 2018.
• As of 2016, the percentage of people in India who were deprived of nutrition was 21.2 per cent.

Significance of Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

• It measures each year the complexities of poor people’s lives, individually and collectively.
• It focuses on how multidimensional poverty has declined.
• It provides a comprehensive picture of global trends in multidimensional poverty, covering 5 billion people.
• It probes patterns between and within countries and by indicator, showcasing different ways of making progress.
• The MPI provides a comprehensive and in-depth picture of global poverty and monitors progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 i.e. to end poverty in all its forms.
• It also provides policymakers with the data to respond to the call of Target 1.2, which is to ‘reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definition’.

Source: The Print