NEW DELHI: Two hundred and forty-eight million Indians were uplifted from ‘multidimensional poverty’ in the last nearly a decade, according to NITI Aayog, the Indian government’s nodal agency tasked with catalysing economic development.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is a globally recognised comprehensive measure that captures poverty in multiple dimensions beyond monetary aspects.
‘As a result, India is likely to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target on multidimensional poverty well before 2030,’ it was stated during the release yesterday of a NITI Aayog study, ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06.’
India’s target is to reduce the number of people in multidimensional poverty by half by the end of this decade. The Oxford Policy and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided technical inputs for this study.
B V R Subrahmanyam, CEO of NITI Aayog, commended the publication of this study, which was released yesterday
by Professor Ramesh Chand, Member of this nodal government agency.
The high-level uplift of Indians from poverty between fiscal years 2013-14 and 2022-23 represents a reduction in their numbers by 17.89 percentage points. India’s fiscal year begins on 1st April and ends on 31st March the succeeding year.
‘Uttar Pradesh state registered the largest decline in the number of poor people with 59.4 million Indians escaping multidimensional poverty during these years, followed by Bihar state at 37.7 million, Madhya Pradesh state at 23 million and Rajasthan state at 18.7 million,’ according to the study.
Multidimensional Poverty was ended for 248 million Indians through government initiatives to address all dimensions of poverty.
‘Recent decisions, such as extending free food grain distribution for another five years, exemplify such initiatives,’ according to the study. ‘Various programmes addressing maternal health, clean cooking fuel distribution, improved electricity coverage and transformative campaigns like
Clean India Mission and Water to Every Household Mission have collectively elevated living conditions and overall well-being of the people,’ it concluded.
Source: Emirates News Agency