India's Multidimensional Poverty Declines by 24.8 Cr in 9 Years: NITI Report

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) As many as 24.82 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in nine years to 2022-23, with Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh registering the largest decline, Niti Aayog said in a report on Monday.

According to the NITI discussion paper, multidimensional poverty in India declined from 29.17 per cent in 2013-14 to 11.28 per cent in 2022-23, with about 24.82 crore people moving out of this bracket during this period.

The national multidimensional poverty measures simultaneous deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by 12 sustainable development goals-aligned indicators, according to NITI Aayog.

These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts. The National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) by Niti Aayog uses the Alkire Foster methodology to assess the decline in poverty rates. However, the National MPI covers 12 indicators while global MPI covers 10 indicators.

At the state level, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 5.94 crore people escaping poverty followed by Bihar at 3.77 crore and Madhya Pradesh at 2.30 crore.

All 12 indicators of MPS have shown remarkable improvement during this period.

Addressing the media, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said 24.82 people who escaped multidimensional poverty in nine years translates into 2.75 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty every year.

"Government has a goal to bring down multidimensional poverty to below 1 per cent and all efforts are being made in that direction," NITI Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam said.

The paper said India is all set to reach single-digit poverty levels during 2024.

"The rate of decline of multidimensional poverty has accelerated during the period 2013-14 to 2022-23," the paper said, adding that this is made possible by a large number of initiatives/ schemes of the government targeted at improving specific deprivation aspects

The paper also said India is likely to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1.2 (reducing multidimensional poverty by at least half) much ahead of 2030.

The report said the recent National MPI was based on National Family Health Surveys 4 (2015-16) and 5 (2019-21).

Owing to a lack of data for the years between 2005-06 and 2015-16 and after 2019-21 concerning the incidence of poverty levels, the headcount poverty rations for 2013-14 and 2022-23 have been estimated based on the compound growth rate of reduction in the incidence of poverty levels between 2005-05 and 2015-16 and 2015-16 and 2019-21 respectively.