India has lifted a “record” number of 135 million of its citizens from “multidimensional poverty” between 2015-16 and 2019-21, according to a new report released by Indian government-linked think tank NITI Aayog.
Titled ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’, the report claimed that India recorded a “significant decline” of 9.9 percent in the number of poor people.
It said that the poverty rate in the country had fallen from 24.85 percent in 2015-16 to 14.96 percent in 2019-21.
The report is based on data collected during the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) in 2019-21. The NFHS is a pan-India survey conducted by the Ministry of Heath and Family Welfare (MoHFW).
The new report underlines that the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), calculated on the basis of various developmental parameters, had almost halved from 0.117 in 2015-16 to 0.066 in 2019-21.
It also observed that the “intensity” of poverty had declined from 47 percent to 44 percent during the same period.
The rural parts of India, home to more than half of the population, witnessed a faster decline in poverty levels as compared to the urban parts of the country, the report said.
Almost a third of India’s rural population lived in poverty in 2015-16, which fell to 19.28 percent in 2019-21.
In the urban areas, the poverty levels reduced from 8.65 percent in 2015-16 to 5.27 percent as of 2019-21.
The biggest net gains in reducing poverty were observed in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, where more than 34 million “escaped” multidimensional poverty, said NITI Aayog.
The other states which made significant strides in poverty reduction were Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Rajasthan, according to the findings.
India’s official poverty line is set at earnings of $1.90 per day per person.
Poverty Alleviation Goals Met Ahead of 2030 Deadline
The NITI Aayog report also expressed confidence that India was on track to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) well ahead of the 2030 deadline.
SDGs call to reduce the number of people in poverty by a half.
The report said that a “marked improvement” has been recorded on all the 12 SDG indicators concerning nutrition, child mortality, standard of living, school attendance, drinking water, sanitation, electricity and housing.
The report credited federal schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission (to enhance cleanliness and sanitation) Jal Jeevan Mission (access to drinking water), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (geared to provide housing for everyone) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (aimed at digital financial inclusion) in improving the developmental parameters in the country.
The report comes on the heels of another report by the United Nations last week, which claimed that nearly 415 million people exited poverty in India between 2005-06 and 2019-21.