Bihar, Jharkhand and UP poorest states in India: Report

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Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have emerged as the poorest states in India, according to Niti Aayog’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).

As per the index, 51.91% of the population from Bihar is poor, which is followed by 42.16% in Jharkhand and 37.79% in Uttar Pradesh. While Madhya Pradesh 36.65% has been placed fourth in the index, and Meghalaya is in the fifth position at 32.67%.

States have registered the lowest poverty across India and are at the bottom of the index, with Kerala at 0.71%, followed by Goa at 3.76%, Sikkim at 3.82%, Tamil Nadu at 4.89% and Punjab at 5.59%.

India’s national MPI measure uses the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), according to the report.

It added that as a measure of multidimensional poverty and captures multiple and simultaneous deprivation faced by households.

SDG framework has wider scope

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework has redefined developmental policies, government priorities, and metrics for measuring development progress across the world. This has been adopted by 193 countries in 2015.

With 17 global goals and 169 targets, the SDG framework is significantly wider in scope and scale relative to its predecessor, Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contributor towards instituting a public policy tool which monitors multidimensional poverty, informs evidence-based and focused interventions, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind, said, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar in his foreword.

Further, he said that India’s baseline report on national MPI measure based on the reference period of the 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)