Abstract
To meet the national development goals in India on poverty alleviation and to trail the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), policy makers need to have adequate information on poverty in the country. To this end the aim of this paper is to analyse the trends in multidimensional poverty at the all-India level, across geographic locations, castes and religious groups. We have used Alkire–Foster methodology to measure multidimensional poverty index (MPI) and utilized National Family Health Survey unit level data of the latest three rounds 2005–06, 2015–16 and 2019–21. To the best of our understanding this is the first paper that utilizes the latest data sets to analyse the trends of MPI in India. We have also made a comparative assessment of trends of poverty in India measured by Global MPI approach and India’s MPI approach. Over the period 2005–2006 to 2019–2021 the absolute decline in MPI was larger in rural areas of India. However, the contribution to MPI in rural areas is relatively high and that increased over time. There was no evidence of reduction of inter-caste and inter-religious based disparities. There are larger doses of decline in MPI in the sub period 2015–2016 to 2019–2021 but the decline across the states of India continues to be non-regressive. The states which were worst performing in 2005–2006 continue to be the same in 2019–2021. The paper concludes that by exploring the MPI over time one can decipher the urgencies in policy development to move towards the SDGs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and materials
Data used for this study are available at International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) and ICF. (2017). National Family Health Survey of India: 2005–06 (NFHS-3), 2015–16 (NFHS-4) and 2019–21 (NFHS-5). URL: https://www.dhsprogram.com/Countries/Country-Main.cfm?ctry_id=57
Notes
The multidimensional poverty measurement is robust also if we alter different weighting schemes with specific cut-off, k = 1/3 (Alkire and Seth 2015; Das et al. 2020).
References
Aayog, N. I. T. I. (2021). National multidimensional poverty index baseline report: Based on the National Family Health Survey-4. NITI Aayog, Government of India.
Aggarwal, S., Kumar, S., & Tiwari, M. K. (2018). Decision support system for Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana. Energy Policy, 118, 455–461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2018.04.011
Alkire, S., & Santos, M. E. (2010). Acute multidimensional poverty: A new index for develo** countries (July 1, 2010). Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Working Paper No. 38, United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report Office Background Paper No. 2010/11, SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1815243 or https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1815243.
Alkire, S., & Housseini, B. (2014). Multidimensional poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Levels and trends. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:1652adc2-3788-4cd2-8de1-d44212ddb638.
Alkire, S., Roche, J. M., Ballon, P., Foster, J., Santos, M. E., & Seth, S. (2015). Multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis: Chapter 2 - The Framework. OPHI working paper 83, University of Oxford.
Alkire, S., & Foster, J. (2011). Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement. Journal of Public Economics, 95(7–8), 476–487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.11.006
Alkire, S., **dra, C., Robles Aguilar, G., & Vaz, A. (2017). Multidimensional poverty reduction among countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Forum for Social Economics, 46(2), 178–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/07360932.2017.1310123
Alkire, S., Oldiges, C., & Kanagaratnam, U. (2021). Examining multidimensional poverty reduction in India 2005/6–2015/16: Insights and oversights of the headcount ratio. World Development, 142, 105454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105454
Alkire, S., & Seth, S. (2015). Multidimensional poverty reduction in India between 1999 and 2006: Where and how? World Development, 72, 93–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.02.009
Battiston, D., Cruces, G., Lopez-Calva, L. F., Lugo, M. A., & Santos, M. E. (2013). Income and beyond: Multidimensional poverty in six Latin American countries. Social Indicators Research, 112(2), 291–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0249-3
Bourguignon, F., & Chakravarty, S. R. (2019). The measurement of multidimensional poverty. In S. R. Chakravarty (Ed.), Poverty, social exclusion and stochastic dominance (pp. 83–107). Singapore: Springer.
Burchi, F., Malerba, D., Montenegro, C. E., & Rippin, N. (2022). Assessing trends in multidimensional poverty during the MDGs. Review of Income and Wealth. Ahead of print https://doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12578.
Das, P., Ghosh, S., & Paria, B. (2021a). Multidimensional poverty in India: A study on regional disparities. GeoJournal, 87, 3987–4006. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10483-6
Das, P., Paria, B., & Firdaush, S. (2021b). Juxtaposing consumption poverty and multidimensional poverty: A study in Indian context. Social Indicators Research, 153(2), 469–501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-020-02519-0
de Jong, E., & Vijge, M. J. (2021). From Millennium to Sustainable Development Goals: Evolving discourses and their reflection in policy coherence for development. Earth System Governance, 7, 100087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2020.100087
Erumban, A. A., Das, D. K., Aggarwal, S., & Das, P. C. (2019). Structural change and economic growth in India. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 51, 186–202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2019.07.006
Ervin, P. A., Gayoso de Ervin, L., Molinas Vega, J. R., & Sacco, F. G. (2018). Multidimensional poverty in Paraguay: Trends from 2000 to 2015. Social Indicators Research, 140(3), 1035–1076. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-017-1795-x
Fransman, T., & Yu, D. (2019). Multidimensional poverty in South Africa in 2001–16. Development Southern Africa, 36(1), 50–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2018.1469971
Godinot, X., & Walker, R. (2020). Poverty in all its forms: Determining the dimensions of poverty through merging knowledge. In H. H. Valentin Beck (Ed.), Dimensions of poverty: Measurement, epistemic injustices, activism (p. 264). Springer.
Hanandita, W., & Tampubolon, G. (2016). Multidimensional poverty in Indonesia: Trend over the last decade (2003–2013). Social Indicators Research, 128(2), 559–587. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1044-0
Jha, P., & Parvati, P. (2010). Right to Education Act 2009: Critical gaps and challenges. Economic and Political Weekly, 45(13), 20–23.
Kumar, K., Prakash, A., & Singh, K. (2021). How National Education Policy 2020 can be a lodestar to transform future generation in India. Journal of Public Affairs, 21(3), e2500. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2500
Maharani, A., & Tampubolon, G. (2014). Has decentralisation affected child immunisation status in Indonesia? Global Health Action, 7(1), 24913. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v7.24913
MDG Monitor (2017). MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, available at: https://www.mdgmonitor.org/mdg-1-eradicate-poverty-hunger. Accessed 14 October, 2022
Pradhan, I., Kandapan, B., & Pradhan, J. (2022). Uneven burden of multidimensional poverty in India: A caste based analysis. PLoS ONE, 17(7), e0271806. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271806
Qi, X., Ye, S., Xu, Y., & Chen, J. (2022). Uneven dynamics and regional disparity of multidimensional poverty in China. Social Indicators Research, 159(1), 169–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02744-1
Robeyns, I. (2005). The capability approach: A theoretical survey. Journal of Human Development, 6(1), 93–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/146498805200034266
Sen, A. (1985). Capabilities and commodities. North-Holland.
Sen, A. (1987). The standard of living: lecture I, concepts and critiques (pp. 1–19). University Press.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford University Press.
Shah, M., & Steinberg, B. (2019). The right to education act: Trends in enrollment, test scores, and school quality. In AEA Papers and Proceedings (Vol. 109, pp. 232–38).
Singh, B. P. (2021). Institutional quality and poverty reduction in BRICS. Poverty & Public Policy, 13(4), 335–350. https://doi.org/10.1002/pop4.327
The Hindu (2010). India joins list of 135 countries in making education a right. The Hindu, April 2010.
Tripathi, S., & Yenneti, K. (2020). Measurement of multidimensional poverty in India: A State-level analysis. Indian Journal of Human Development, 14(2), 257–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973703020944763
Tsui, K. Y. (2002). Multidimensional poverty indices. Social Choice and Welfare, 19(1), 69–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/s355-002-8326-3
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). (1997). Human development to eradicate poverty.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2010). The real wealth of nations: Pathways to human development. Palgrave Macmillan.
United Nations (2015). Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/partnerships. Accessed 14 October, 2022
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2020). Human Development Reports 2020: The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene. https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2020.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
The authors are willing to permit the Journal to publish the article.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Das, P., Ghosh, S. & Paria, B. Multidimensional poverty in India: patterns of reduction across population subgroups and geographical locations during 2005–06 and 2019–21. GeoJournal 88, 3851–3870 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-023-10833-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-023-10833-6