National Multidimensional Poverty Index

Contact Counsellor

With more than 50% of the population in Bihar identified as “multidimensionally poor”, the State has the maximum percentage of population living in poverty among all the States and the Union Territories, according to Government think tank NITI Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

It provides a high-level view of the level of multidimensional poverty and its change with time and presents an overall picture of poverty in the country
It does in-depth analyses of areas of interest such as regions – state or districts, and specific sectors –under the dimensions of health and nutrition, education and living standards and complements the existing monetary poverty statistics
It is used to measure and monitor India’s performance on various important social and economic parameters and enable the utilisation of these indices as tools for self-improvement
In India, It is being released by public policy think tank of the Government of India- NITI Aayog
It is closely aligned to the global methodology and rankings and uses methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
It is developed on the basis of the National Family Health Survey 2015-16

It has three equally weighted dimensions, health, education and standard of living - which are represented by twelve indicators namely nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, antenatal care, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank accounts.

Bihar is on the top with 51.91% of the poor population , followed by Jharkhand (42.16%), Uttar Pradesh (37.79%), Madhya Pradesh (36.65%) and Meghalaya (32.67%).
Kerala has registered the lowest population poverty levels (0.71%), followed by Puducherry (1.72%), Lakshadweep (1.82%), Goa (3.76%) and Sikkim (3.82%).
Other States and Union Territories where less than 10% of the population is poor include Tamil Nadu (4.89%), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.30%), Delhi (4.79%), Punjab (5.59%), Himachal Pradesh (7.62%) and Mizoram (9.8%).

It is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool which will monitor multidimensional poverty with evidence-based and focused interventions
it captures multiple and simultaneous deprivation faced by households