India home to one-third of the world’s poor

LONDON: A new measure of global poverty, the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), has found that there are more poor people in eight Indian states than in 26 of the poorest African nations combined, reported The Times of India. The eight Indian states Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have 421 million poor people whereas 26 of the poorest African countries have a total of 420 million poor people.

The MPI has been developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support and is to be featured in the 20th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report that will be published late October. Though the report is yet forthcoming, the MPI was available Monday at a policy forum in London and on line on the websites of OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report.

The MPI supplants the Human Poverty Index, which had been included in the annual Human Development Reports since 1997. It gives a multidimensional picture of people living in poverty as it assesses a range of critical factors or ‘deprivations’ at the household level – from education to health outcomes to assets and is expected to help target development resources more effectively, its creators have said.

The MPI also reveals the nature and extent of poverty at different levels: from household up to regional, national and international level. This new multidimensional approach to assessing poverty has been adapted for national use in Mexico, and is now being considered by Chile and Colombia.

“The MPI is like a high resolution lens which reveals a vivid spectrum of challenges facing the poorest households,” said OPHI Director Dr Sabina Alkire, who created the MPI with Professor James Foster of George Washington University and Maria Emma Santos of OPHI. The UNDP Human Development Report Office is also joining forces with OPHI to promote international discussions on the practical applicability of this multidimensional approach to measuring poverty.

Nagaland, Delhi and J&K have the least number of poor while Orissa and Bihar the most, says a report by an expert group, headed by Suresh Tendulkar, former chairman of PM’s Economic Advisory Council.TIMES OF INDIA

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.