'In 15 years, 415 million people came out of poverty in India'

In a noteworthy achievement, India has witnessed a significant reduction in poverty, with a staggering 415 million people emerging from poverty within a span of just 15 years. The United Nations (UN) announced this remarkable progress on Tuesday, highlighting India’s achievement as the world’s most populous nation. The latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, reveals that 25 countries, including India, successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years. This positive outcome demonstrates that rapid progress in poverty reduction is attainable. Among the countries that achieved this feat are Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia, and Vietnam. The report showcases India’s impressive journey, as it surpassed China in April to become the world’s most populous nation, with a population of 1.4286 billion, according to UN data. The report emphasizes that India’s poverty reduction is an achievable goal. However, the lack of comprehensive data during the COVID-19 pandemic period presents challenges in assessing the immediate prospects for poverty reduction, according to the report. India witnessed a significant decrease in poverty incidence from 55.1% in 2005/2006 to 16.4% in 2019/2021, with 415 million people escaping poverty between 2005/2006 and 2019/2021. In 2005/2006, approximately 645 million people in India were living in multidimensional poverty, a number that declined to about 370 million in 2015/2016 and further reduced to 230 million in 2019/2021. The report highlights the decline in deprivation across all indicators in India, with the poorest states and marginalized groups, including children and disadvantaged caste communities, making the fastest progress. Notably, the percentage of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived of nutrition reduced from 44.3% in 2005/2006 to 11.8% in 2019/2021. Child mortality also witnessed a decline from 4.5% to 1.5%. Furthermore, the report indicates a substantial reduction in the percentage of people who are poor and deprived of essential resources such as cooking fuel (from 52.9% to 13.9%) and sanitation (from 50.4% in 2005/2006 to 11.3% in 2019/2021). The percentage of people experiencing multidimensional poverty and deprivation in indicators like drinking water, electricity, and housing also significantly decreased during this period. The report emphasizes that countries with varying levels of poverty incidence were able to halve their global MPI values. Despite starting with an incidence above 50%, both India and Congo achieved this milestone. Among the 19 countries that halved their global MPI values in one period (2005/2006–2015/2016), India’s progress stands out. The report, which states that 1.1 billion people (over 18% of the global population) are living in acute multidimensional poverty across 110 countries, reveals that sub-Saharan Africa (534 million) and South Asia (389 million) are home to the majority of the world’s poor population. It further highlights that approximately two-thirds of all poor people (730 million) reside in middle-income countries, making poverty reduction efforts in these nations crucial for global poverty alleviation. Although low-income countries constitute only 10% of the population included in the MPI, they are home to 35% of the world’s poor. Children under the age of 18 represent half of the MPI-poor population (566 million), with a poverty rate of 27.7% among children, compared to 13.4% among adults. Rural areas bear the brunt of poverty, with 84% of the world’s poor living in rural regions, which are generally poorer than urban areas across all regions. The report highlights that countries have achieved halving their MPI values in periods as short as four to 12 years, showcasing the feasibility of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of halving poverty based on national definitions within 15 years. To effectively address poverty, the report emphasizes the need for context-specific multidimensional poverty indices that reflect national definitions, as the global MPI uses a standardized methodology. However, the lack of post-pandemic data for most countries covered by the global MPI hampers the understanding of the pandemic’s impact on poverty reduction. As we enter the mid-point of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office, acknowledges the steady progress made in multidimensional poverty reduction before the pandemic. He emphasizes the significance of intensifying efforts to comprehend the dimensions most affected by the pandemic, highlighting the importance of strengthened data collection and policy interventions to get poverty reduction back on track. The UNDP press release reveals that poverty reduction momentum may have been sustained during the pandemic, based on data collected solely from a few countries, including Mexico, Madagascar, Cambodia, Peru, and Nigeria. Encouragingly, Cambodia, Peru, and Nigeria demonstrated significant reductions in poverty in their most recent periods, offering hope that progress can still be achieved. For instance, Cambodia witnessed a notable decrease in poverty incidence from 36.7% to 16.6% within a span of 7.5 years, including the pandemic years (2014–2021/22). However, the full global impacts of the pandemic on poverty reduction remain to be measured. The press release calls for a broader assessment of the pandemic’s impact on children, highlighting that in more than half of the countries covered, there was either no statistically significant reduction in child poverty or the rate of poverty reduction among children was slower than among adults. This underscores the urgency of addressing child poverty, particularly in relation to education and undernutrition. Sabina Alkire, Director of OPHI at the University of Oxford, expresses concern over the scarcity of data on multidimensional poverty, deeming it difficult to comprehend and unjustifiable. She emphasizes the solvability of this problem, advocating for breakthroughs in poverty data collection by leveraging just 5% of survey questions. Alkire calls on funders and data scientists to make significant strides in tracking and intercepting the real-time interconnected deprivations that affect poor individuals. The global MPI serves as a vital tool for monitoring poverty reduction and informing policy decisions, shedding light on how people experience poverty in various aspects of their lives, from education and health to living standards such as housing, drinking water, sanitation, and electricity. (With inputs from agencies)