Delhi, Kerala, Goa have least number of poor: new UNDP measure

Prasun Sonwalkar
London, Jul 15 (PTI) Amidst acute poverty across South
Asia, the five states of Delhi, Kerala, Goa, Punjab and
Himachal Pradesh have the least number of poor people in
India, according to a new measure of global poverty developed
at the University of Oxford for the UNDP.
The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty
Index (MPI), has been developed and applied by the Oxford
Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
It will be featured in the forthcoming 20th
anniversary edition of the UN Development Programme Human
Development Report.
A detailed analysis using the MPI reveals that South
Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have comparable intensities of
poverty, according to an OPHI working paper titled 'Acute
Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing
Countries'.
In terms of human lives, South Asia has the world's
highest levels of poverty.
Fifty-one per cent of the population of Pakistan is
MPI poor, 58 per cent in Bangladesh, 55 per cent in India, and
65 per cent in Nepal.
The analysis states: "We find that Delhi has an MPI
equivalent to Iraq (which ranks 45), whereas Bihar's MPI is
similar to Guinea´s (the 8th poorest country in the ranking).
"In terms of headcount, in Delhi and Kerala 14 per
cent and 16 per cent of the population are MPI poor,
respectively, whereas in Jharkhand 77 per cent of the
population are MPI poor and in Bihar, 81 per cent".
Other 'top ten' states with the least number of poor
in India are Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and
Gujarat.
The analysis by MPI creators reveals that there are
more 'MPI poor' people in eight Indian states (421 million in
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26
poorest African countries combined (410 million).
"Just to provide a sense of perspective, the
population of the poorest Indian state Bihar, with 95 million
people, exceeds the sum of nine of the ten poorest African
countries," according to the authors Sabina Alkire and Maria
Emma Santos.
Further analysis shows that in India, the Scheduled
Tribes have the highest MPI (0.482), almost the same as
Mozambique, and a headcount of 81 per cent.
The Scheduled Castes have a headcount of 66 per cent
and their MPI is a bit better than Nigeria.
Fifty-eight per cent of other Backward Castes are MPI
poor. (More) PTI