Clarion India

NEW DELHI — Every second person belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and every third person belonging to the Scheduled Castes remains poor in India. Similarly, every third Muslim is multi-dimensionally poor as are two in five children under the age of 10, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)’s global multidimensional poverty index (MPI), 2018.

The term multidimensional means poor not only on the basis of income but on other indicators such as nutrition, health, education, living standards and assets, this is how the report released on Thursday mentioned.

The report found that 50 per cent of all tribals in the country are poor as are 33 per cent of Dalits and 33 per cent of Muslims.

Overall, India still has the largest number of people living in multidimensional poverty in the world at 364 million or around 27 per cent of the country’s population. Of this, as many as 34.5 per cent are children. Moreover, 8.6 per cent of the country’s population lives in “severe poverty”, according to the report.

The report ranks India as having the largest number of poor in absolute numbers on account of its population, while in terms of the proportion of poor, India is the 54th poorest country among the 105 surveyed. Niger tops this list.

The report reflects how India’s most vulnerable sections continue to remain at the bottom of the pyramid.

On the other hand, report finds that the so-called upper castes fare far better on the MPI scale — only 15 per cent of the ‘upper’ castes are poor.

The positive indicator in the report is that the poverty rate in India has gone down significantly in the 10 years — from 55 per cent in 2005-06 to 28 per cent in 2015-16.

According to the report, the poorest groups — spanning across states, castes, religions and age groups — have had the highest reduction in MPI during 2005-06 and 2015-16.

For instance, while 80 per cent of the Scheduled Tribe had been poor in 2005-06, the figure has gone down to 50 per cent in 2015-16, says the report.

State-wise, Bihar, followed by Jharkhand, are the poorest states with 52 per cent and 45 per cent of their population respectively identified as living in multidimensional poverty. In Kerala, which is the best performer, only 1 per cent of population falls in the category.

The causes of multidimensional poverty across states seem consistent — while poor nutrition is the largest contributor and responsible for 28.3 per cent of India’s MPI, not having a household member with at least six years of education is the second largest contributor at 16 per cent.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government has decided to ensure piped drinking water to all rural households by 2024, the inadequate access to clean water and child mortality contribute the least, at 2.8 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively.

To address the issue of poor nutrition, the Food Security Act was introduced in 2013 by the then Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to provide subsidised foodgrains to the poor. Lack of education, meanwhile, may have led to the inability to access employment, thus contributing to poverty.