United Nations: More than 270 million citizens of India were out of the poverty line in the decade since 2005-06 and the rate of poverty in the country almost halved during the 10-year period. The development brings a positive sign that poverty is being countered on a global scale, as per the latest estimates released by the global agency on Thursday.
As per the report of 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), almost 1.3 billion people around the world live in multidimensional poverty.
This can be said that nearly a quarter of the total population of the 104 countries is below the poverty line. The 2018 MPI was calculated for those 104 countries. Out of these numbers, about 1.3 billion, which is almost half as 46 percent, are considered to be living in severe poverty conditions and are not able to access not less than half of the dimensions covered in the MPI, it said.
There are “promising signs that such poverty can be – and is being – tackled”, despite the fact that there is a lot, that needs to be done to tackle poverty globally.
As per the index, a total of 271 million people moved out of poverty between the period 2005/06 and 2015/16. As a result, the poverty rate in the country is nearly halved. It can be said in the form of numbers that it fell from 55 percent to 28 percent over the ten-year period.
India is considered the first country for which progress over time has been estimated.
“Although the level of poverty – particularly in children – is staggering so is the progress that can be made in tackling it. In India alone some 271 million have escaped multidimensional poverty in just ten years,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.
“The Multidimensional Poverty Index gives insights that are vital for understanding the many ways in which people experience poverty, and it provides a new perspective on the scale and nature of global poverty while reminding us that eliminating it in all its forms is far from impossible,” he said.
Between the period of 2006 and 2017, the life expectancy figures rose over the seven years in Sub-Saharan Africa and by nearly four years in South Asia, and enrollment rates in primary education are up to 100 percent.
These are positive indications for improvements in multidimensional poverty.
As per the estimates, the total half of all the people living in the poverty are younger than 18 years old. According to the new figures, about 104 primarily low and middle-income countries have 662 million children are said to be multi-dimensionally poor.
The MPI dimensions look beyond the income factors to understand better how the people are experiencing poverty in multiple and simultaneous ways. As per the report, about 35 countries have poor children.
It explains the trend of how people are being left behind across the three key dimensions: health, education, and living standards and lacking many important things like clean water, sanitation, adequate nutrition or primary education.
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