Tackling poverty is on course but daunting challenges remain
It is good to know that we may be winning the war against poverty, but there is no room for complacency. In its latest report, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has said that in the last 15 years, 415 million people in India were pulled out of poverty. In the same breath, the agency warned that with nearly 230 million below the poverty line, India continues to have the largest number of poor in the world. Between 2005 and 2015, when Congress-led UPA was in power, 275 million escaped poverty, while between 2016 to 2021, when the BJP was in power, 140 million rose out of poverty. Congress’ P Chidambaran claimed his government performed better on this front, but the UN agency said poverty declined faster at 11.9% in the latter period.
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is important as it does not measure poverty merely as an ‘income’ factor but applies three parameters—health, education and standard of living. The good news is this more all-round assessment showed India’s multidimensional poverty value had fallen from 0.283 in 2005 to a low of 0.069 in 2019–21. In percentage terms, poverty declined from 55.1% to 27.7% over the 15 years. The agency recognised that policy action and schemes—in education, nutrition, water, sanitation, and employment—contributed to these results.
However, before we begin clapping, we must realise much of this data was collected before the Covid-19 pandemic had demolished past gains. World Bank estimates say that of 71 million people who sank into poverty worldwide in 2020, as many as 56 million Indians had plunged into the misery tally. Another big concern is the bulk of the poor—21.2% are from rural areas, with urban India accounting for just 5.5%. The priority for the government is clear. While we debate what is ‘poverty’, the multi-faceted challenges of human deprivation need to be tackled on a war footing.
The recent Global Hunger Index listed India at 107 out of 121 countries—a fall of seven notches since last year. Though the government rejected these reports on methodology, clearly, we have a problem. Government spending on direct transfers and subsidies at the bottom of the pyramid and generation of rural jobs has worked well in the past. More of the same is the cry of the hour.