Number of poor people in India fell by about 415 million between 2005-06 and 2019-21, a 'historic change': UN

PTI

United Nations, October 17

The number of poor people in India fell by about 415 million between 2005-06 and 2019-21, a “historic change” and a demonstration that the Sustainable Development Goal target of reducing at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty by 2030 is possible to achieve, even at a large scale, according to the UN.

The new Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) released on Monday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford said that in India, 415 million people exited poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21.

It demonstrates the "Sustainable Development Goal target 1.2 of reducing at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030 is possible to achieve — and at scale," it said.

The UN in a press release on the report said, "In India, some 415 million people left multidimensional poverty in a 15-year period -- a historic change.”

"India is an important case study for the Sustainable Development Goals, the first of which is to end poverty in all its forms and to reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030, all while leaving no one behind,” it said.

The report said based on 2020 population data for India, it has by far the largest number of poor people worldwide (228.9 million), followed by Nigeria (96.7 million projected in 2020).

“Despite progress, India's population remains vulnerable to the mounting effects of the covid pandemic and to rising food and energy prices. Integrated policies tackling the ongoing nutritional and energy crises should be a priority,” it said.

“Despite tremendous gains, the ongoing task of ending poverty for the 228.9 million poor people in 2019-2021 is daunting — especially as the number has nearly certainly risen since the data were collected.

There were still 97 million poor children in India in 2019-21 — more than the total number of poor people, children and adults combined, in any other country covered by the global MPI. Yet, these multipronged policy approaches show that integrated interventions can improve the lives of millions of people,” the report said.

While poverty among children fell faster in absolute terms, India still has the highest number of poor children in the world (97 million, or 21.8 per cent of children ages 0-17 in India), it said.

The analysis looks at the most common deprivation profiles across 111 developing countries. The most common profile, affecting 3.9 per cent of poor people, includes deprivations in exactly four indicators: nutrition, cooking fuel, sanitation and housing.

More than 45.5 million poor people are deprived in only these four indicators. Of those people, 34.4 million live in India, 2.1 million in Bangladesh and 1.9 million in Pakistan — making this a predominantly South Asian profile, it said.

Of the nearly 415 million people who exited poverty in India in the 15 years prior to the covid pandemic, roughly 275 million did so between 2005-06 and 2015-16 and 140 million did so between 2015-16 and 2019-21.

“India's progress shows that this goal is feasible, even at a large scale,” it said.

Noting that children are still the poorest age group, the report said that in India, more than one in five children are poor (21.8 per cent) compared with around one in seven adults (13.9 per cent). This translates to 97 million poor children.

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