NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

Q. Why is this in news?
A. The Government think-tank NITI Aayog has released the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

Q. What is Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)?

This baseline report of India’s first-ever national MPI measure is based on the reference period of 2015-16 of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)- 4.
It uses the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It captures multiple and simultaneous deprivations faced by households.

Q. Which are the Parameters used?
A.

The NMPI is calculated using 12 indicators — nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, antenatal care, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account,
They have been grouped under three dimensions namely, health, education and standard of living.

Q. Why NFHS-4?

Data collected during the NFHS-4 (2015-2016) corresponds to the period before the full roll out of new governments’ flagship schemes.
Hence it serves as a useful source for measuring the situation at baseline i.e. before large-scale rollout of nationally important schemes.

Q. How is the data used?

The national MPI 2021 is calculated using the household microdata collected at the unit-level for the NFHS-4 that is used to derive the baseline multidimensional poverty.
Further, the country’s progress would be measured using this baseline in the NFHS-5, for which the data was collected between 2019 and 2020.
The progress of the country with respect to this baseline will be measured using the NFHS-5 data collected in 2019-20.

Q. What are the Key highlights of NMPI?

As per the index, 51.91% of the population in Bihar is poor, followed by Jharkhand (42.16%), Uttar Pradesh (37.79%), Madhya Pradesh (36.65%) and Meghalaya (32.67%).
On the other hand, Kerala registered lowest population poverty levels (0.71%), followed by Puducherry (1.72%), Lakshadweep (1.82%), Goa (3.76%) and Sikkim (3.82%).
Other States and UTs where less than 10% of the population are poor include Tamil Nadu (4.89%), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.30%), Delhi (4.79%), Punjab (5.59%), Himachal Pradesh (7.62%) and Mizoram (9.8%).