Millions escape poverty in India?

Resilience is a positive word to describe 'hope' for poverty-stricken, underprivileged and deprived poor people’s attitude towards life, even though, they are being forced to live in poverty and miserable conditions for years, with no mercy or so, fighting their own battle for a better life – A tryst with destiny! India is home to millions of such poor people who have been struggling to come out of their misery, for decades, and break the shackles of poverty. Although it’s not yet a rosy picture for them to experience the fortunes of prosperity, development and dwell in a level playing field, but times are also changing for them too and life seems to give them chance to live, away from poverty.

Catching Up! In the past decades, India has made “tremendous strides” and continues to make in reducing poverty. If reports are to be believed, according to estimates from the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty, the nation has made ‘inclusive growth’ in reducing  multidimensional poverty. “The MPI demonstrates the strides India has made in reducing poverty. It is especially encouraging that traditionally disadvantaged groups are catching up the fastest. This in line with the core philosophy of the Sustainable Development Goals to reach the farthest first, it is also reflected in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development pledge of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas,” says Francine Pickup, UNDP India Country Director.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released the 2018 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report on July 11, 2019. According to the report, In India, 271 million people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2006 and 2016. Compare this globally, where some 1.3 billion people live in multidimensional poverty. 

The UN report analysed 10 countries - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nigeria, Peru and Vietnam to illustrate the level of poverty reduction.

The report says, across India, pockets of multidimensional poverty are found particularly in the four states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. These accounted for 196 million MPI poor people – more than half of all MPI poor in India. However, not to anyone’s surprise, Jharkhand made the biggest progress among all states in reducing multidimensional poverty, with Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Nagaland only slightly behind.

Presenting a ‘future forward’ scenario for a better understanding to fight poverty globally, the report states, the MPI looks beyond income to understand how people experience poverty in multiple and simultaneous ways. For a change, to make it more inclusive, it identifies how people are being left behind across three key dimensions: health, education and living standards, and 10 broad indicators. Those who are deprived in at least a third of the MPI’s components are defined as multidimensionally poor.

MPI KEY INDICATORS - nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, sanitation, cooking fuel, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets.

“MPI gives insights that are vital for understanding the many ways in which people experience poverty. Although the level of poverty – particularly in children – is staggering so is the progress that can be made in tackling it,” says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

Optimism and promising signs that poverty can be tackled have been presented in this report. Although, 364 million Indians still continue to experience deprivations and are still left behind by development, the report figures validate that progress can be made with the right approach, public-private participation, policy and institutional interventions, strong political will and  relentlessly pursuing the cause to eradicate poverty.

“To fight poverty, one needs to know where poor people live,” adds Steiner. The report highlighted a positive trend that those furthest behind are moving up the fastest. It underscored that the traditional concept of poverty is outdated, demonstrating that labelling countries as rich and poor is an oversimplification.

(Representational images: source)