The proportion of multidimensionally poor people in Madhya Pradesh has reduced from 36.57 per cent to 20.63 per cent in five years, a recent NITI Aayog report said.
Resultantly, a total of 1.36 crore people have escaped the multidimensional poverty net in Madhya Pradesh in the duration, a state government note said.
The report ‘National Multidimensional Poverty (MPI) Index: A Progress Review 2023’ was released on July 17 by Suman Bery, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog in New Delhi. According to the report, in Madhya Pradesh, poverty reduced by 15.94 per cent in five years, between 2015-16 and 2019-21, which is the second highest rate of improvement in the country after Bihar (18.13 per cent), the state government note said.
As per the MPI 2021 report, Madhya Pradesh scored 0.173 in 2015-16 and improved its position in five years to score 0.090, in 2019-21. A lower MPI score indicates lower poverty.
Also, the intensity of poverty has reduced from 47.25 per cent to 43.70 per cent in Madhya Pradesh. Highest improvement in percentage headcount ratio (proportion of multidimensionally poor) has been witnessed in Alirajpur (31.05 pc decline), Barwani (28.8 pc), Khandwa (27.38 pc), Balaghat (26.48 pc) and Tikamgarh (26.33 pc) districts, the note added.
The intensity of multidimensional poverty takes into account the average percentage of dimensions in which poor people are deprived -- the three dimensions of poverty being health, education and standard of living.
MPI uses the latest household micro-data of the all-India National Family Health Survey (NFHS), sourced by the International Institute for Population Sciences in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The latest report captures the changes in multidimensional poverty between the survey periods of NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21).
At national level, the share of India’s population who are multidimensionally poor has declined from 24.85 per cent to 14.96 per cent. Around 13.5 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty in five years. Multidimensional poor people have reduced to nearly half of its count between NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21). A total of 13.5 crore people have exited multidimensional poverty in this period, the note said.
‘Positive trajectory’
Calling this a very positive development, the Madhya Pradesh government said that the reduction in the proportion of the poor reflects the state government’s commitment to understanding, measuring, and addressing the many dimensions of poverty and leveraging this understanding as a key tool in policymaking.
These achievements demonstrate the transformative power of the state government’s multi-sectoral approach to poverty reduction, evident in large investments in improving people’s access to sanitation, cooking fuel, and electricity. Besides the strong focus on achieving universal coverage in education, nutrition, water, and housing has played an important role in driving these positive outcomes.
“The state government has been able to reduce poverty by enabling the poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities, resulting in appreciable improvement in their livelihoods on a sustainable basis, through building strong grassroot institutions for the poor,” the note said.
Improvements in nutrition, increase in the years of schooling, better sanitation and cooking fuel have played a significant role in bringing down poverty. The state government has implemented steps to support the poor population which includes providing free food grain. Madhya Pradesh has also allocated a good amount of funds for subsidizing education, healthcare, electricity and other essential services.
The State Government has launched various indicator-specific schemes and implemented various Central Government-led schemes to reduce poverty and improve well-being of people.
In more than 100 Deendayal Rasoi Centers, the poor are getting a nutritious meal for merely Rs 5. The state government has been distributing fortified rice to remove the deficiency of iron among women and children. Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujwala scheme, 82 lakh women have been given free gas connections. The state government is running 75 senior citizen homes to assist the aged and rehabilitate them. More than 6.25 lakh girls have received around Rs 1,575 crore under the government marriage scheme.
"The Government of Madhya Pradesh has been a pioneer in developing a pro-poor model of financial inclusion that is based on three pillars: a common database platform for system integration of all benefit schemes of the government; an electronic fund management system to ensure timely and accurate payments to beneficiaries; and ultra-small bank branches or customer service points for opening bank accounts, transactions and ensuring last mile connectivity," the note said.
The Madhya Pradesh government has collaborated with academia, civil society, and citizens on using multidimensional poverty measures as both a potent policy instrument as well as a mechanism to measure progress. It has taken the challenge of reducing poverty head-on with these integrated development schemes, the note added.