UNDP finds 8 Indian states acutely poor
Acute poverty prevails in eight Indian states, a new multidimensional measure of global poverty has said. The measure claims that the eight states put together account for more poor people than those present in the 26 poorest African nations combined.
The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), was developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with the United Nation Development Programmes (UNDP) support. It will be featured in the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report.
The measure reveals there are more MPI poor people (421 million) in eight Indian states Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).
MPI gives a multidimensional picture of people living in poverty and is expected to help target development resources more effectively, its creators said. The MPI supplants the Human Poverty Index, which had been included in the annual Human Development Reports since 1997.
The 2010 UNDP Human Development Report will be published in late October, but research findings from the MPI were made available Monday at a policy forum in London and on the websites of OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report.
MPI assesses a range of factors or deprivations: from education to health outcomes to assets and services. Taken together, these factors provide a fuller portrait of acute poverty than simple income measures. The measure reveals the nature and extent of poverty in the household, region, nation and at an international level. This new approach has been adapted for use in Mexico, and is now being considered by Chile and Colombia.