govt-plans-national-measure-for-extreme-poverty

The government is set to develop a national indicator to measure “extreme poverty,” aiming to eradicate it across the entire population by 2030, according to the statistics ministry.

 

The government defines extreme poverty as an income below $1.25 per day.

 

These comments were made in a recent report titled "National Indicator Framework 2024," which assessed India's progress in achieving its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 

The goal is significant as India has been without an official poverty line for a while, shifting from income-based poverty estimates to one based on multi-dimensional deprivations.

 

Two working papers from the World Bank and the IMF previously presented divergent estimates of extreme poverty in India, based on the shared definition of people living on $1.90 or less in purchasing power parity terms. The World Bank's definition of extreme poverty roughly corresponds to the poverty line calculated by the Tendulkar committee for 2004-05 (Rs 33 per day), adjusted for inflation. A credible poverty gauge is crucial now, given the pandemic's "unprecedented reversals in poverty reduction."

 

The report quotes NITI Aayog, stating that in the past decade, India has seen a significant reduction in poverty. The proportion of people living in poverty in "all its dimensions" decreased to 14.96% in 2019-21 from 24.85% in 2015-16.

 

This reduction is attributed to sustained economic growth during the period (6.7% average growth between FY16-FY20) and the implementation of various welfare schemes focused on nutrition, health, education, housing, drinking water, sanitation, skill development, and social protection.

 

A discussion paper by NITI Aayog in January estimated that 248.2 million people moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23, aligning with a key SDG goal. The SDGs adopted by the United Nations in 2015 explicitly target halving multidimensional poverty by 2030.

 

Based on the interpolation of the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) estimates between 2005-06 and 2015-16, the headcount ratio for 2013-14 was 29.17%.

 

Similarly, the proportion of multidimensional poverty for 2022-23 is projected to be 11.28%, based on the trend rate of 10.66% decline per year between 2015-16 and 2019-21, noted the think tank.

 

“With this, India is much ahead of the target of reducing poverty in all its dimensions by half by 2030,” the paper stated.