Lok Sabha Question No. 55 (STARRED), answered on 2022-07-20
Subject: Level of Poverty
Ministry: PLANNING
Asked by: Sushil Kumar Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF PLANNING

## LOK SABHA

## STARRED QUESTION No. *55

TO BE ANSWERED ON 20.07.2022

## LEVEL OF POVERTY

## *55. SHRI SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH:

Will the Minister of PLANNING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the NITI Aayog has tried to gauge the level of poverty in the country after 2016;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) the proxy used by the NITI Aayog to gauge the poverty levels in calculating the performance of States on Sustainable Development Goal-1(SDG-1);
- (d) whether any vertical in NITI Aayog works for gauging poverty in the country; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS & PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION; MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS

## (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

(a) to (e):  A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## STATEMENT  REFERRED  TO  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *55  REGARDING  'LEVEL  OF  POVERTY'  RAISED  BY SHRI SUSHIL KUMAR SINGH

- (a) Yes, NITI Aayog has estimated the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India, its States and  Union  Territories  and  districts  as  on  2015-16,  as  provided  in  the  report  'National Multidimensional  Poverty  Index  Baseline  Report'  released  on  25  November  2021,  which  is based on the National Family Health Survey - 4 (2015-16) conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
- (b) The details of the report are as provided in Annexure.
- (c) The proxy used by NITI Aayog to gauge the poverty levels in calculating the performance of States on Sustainable Development Goal-1(SDG-1) is the Multidimensional Poverty Index. The poverty levels in National Multidimensional Poverty Index are calculated based on multiple and simultaneous  deprivations  faced  by  households  across  the  three  macro  dimensions  of  health, education  and  living  standards.  The  twelve  indicators  used  by  NITI  Aayog  to  measure  the incidence  of  multidimensional  poverty,  the  headcount  ratio  and  intensity  of  poverty,  and  the MPI score are mentioned below:

|   Sl. No. | Indicator                    | Definition for a household to be considered deprived                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|-----------|------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Nutrition                    | A household is considered deprived if any child between the ages of 0 to 59 months, or woman between the ages of 15 to 49 years, or man between the ages of 15 to 54 years -for whom nutritional information is available - is found to be undernourished.                                           |
|         2 | Child & Adolescent Mortality | A child/adolescent under 18 years of age has died in the family in the five-year period preceding the survey.                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|         3 | Antenatal Care               | A household is deprived if any woman in the household who has given birth in the 5 years preceding the survey, has not received at least 4 antenatal care visits for the most recent birth, or has not received assistance from trained skilled medical personnel during the most recent childbirth. |
|         4 | Years of Schooling           | Not even one member of the household aged 10 years or older has completed six years of schooling.                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|         5 | School Attendance            | Any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which he/she would complete class 8.                                                                                                                                                                                                  |
|         6 | Cooking Fuel                 | A household cooks with dung, agricultural crops, shrubs, wood, charcoal or coal.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|         7 | Sanitation                   | The household has unimproved or no sanitation facility or it is improved but shared with other households.                                                                                                                                                                                           |
|         8 | Drinking-Water               | The household does not have access to improved drinking water or safe drinking water is at least a 30-minute walk from home (as a round trip).                                                                                                                                                       |
|         9 | Electricity                  | The household has no electricity.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|        10 | Housing                      | The household has inadequate housing: the floor is made of natural materials, or the roof or wall are made of rudimentary materials.                                                                                                                                                                 |

|   11. | Assets       | The household does not own more than one of these assets: radio, TV, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator; and does not own a car or truck.   |
|-------|--------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|    12 | Bank Account | No household member has a bank account or a post office account.                                                                                                               |

This method of measuring poverty in multiple dimensions aligns with SDG target 1.2 which by 2030 aims to reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions.

- (d) and (e) Yes, the Data Management and Analysis (DMA) vertical in NITI Aayog is mandated to measure  the  monetary  estimates  of  poverty,  the  last  of  which  were  Tendulkar  Committee estimates  (2011-12).  Apart  from  this,  the  Sustainable  Development  Goals  (SDG)  vertical  of NITI Aayog works on the estimation of multidimensional poverty in the country as defined in the National Multidimensional Poverty Index Baseline Report.

***

## Annexure

## Note on the National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report based on NFHS-4 (2015-16)

1. Under the Cabinet Secretary's Global Indices for Reforms and Growth (GIRG) initiative, the country's performance is being monitored across 29 global indices including Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), Human Development Index (HDI), Global Hunger Index (GHI), Global Competitiveness  Index  (GCI),  Human  Capital  Index  (HCI),  Global  Innovation  Index  (GII), among  others.  This  exercise  is  aimed  at  leveraging  the  monitoring  mechanism  of  important social, economic, and other internationally recognised indices, enabling the utilisation of these indices  as  tools  for  bringing  about  reforms  to  improve  outcomes  and  correspondingly  reflect them in India's performance in these indices globally. Under this initiative, NITI Aayog is the nodal  Ministry  for  the  Multidimensional  Poverty  Index  (MPI).  The  MPI  is  a  proxy  used  to gauge the poverty levels in calculating the performance of States on Sustainable Development Goal-1(SDG-1). The SDG-1 aims to 'End poverty in all its forms'.
2. The National MPI Project is aimed at deconstructing the Global MPI and creating a globally aligned and yet customised India MPI for drawing up comprehensive Reform Action Plans with the larger goal of improving India's position in the Global MPI rankings. As the nodal Ministry for MPI, NITI Aayog is also responsible for engaging with the publishing agencies of the index; ranking  States  and  Union  Territories  based  on  their  performance  and  has  also  constituted  an inter-ministerial  MPI  Coordination  Committee  (MPICC)  to  consult  twelve  Line  Ministries mapped to each National MPI indicator.
3. National  Multidimensional  Poverty  Index:  Baseline  Report based  on  NFHS-4  (2015-16)  has been developed by NITI Aayog in consultation with 12 Line Ministries and in partnership with State governments and the index publishing agencies - Oxford University's Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
4. National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report is based on National Family Health Survey 4, which was conducted in 2015-16. NFHS is conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.
5. National  Multidimensional  Poverty  Index:  Baseline  Report based  on  NFHS-4  (2015-16)  is  a contribution  towards  measuring  progress  towards  target  1.2  of  the  Sustainable  Development Goals  (SDGs)  which  aims  at  reducing  'at  least  by  half  the  proportion  of  men,  women  and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions'. Across three dimensions of health, education  and  standard  of  living,  it  includes  indicators  on  nutrition,  child  and  adolescent mortality,  maternal  care,  years  of  schooling,  school  attendance,  cooking  fuel,  sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, bank accounts and assets.
6. NFHS  4  (data  period:  2015-16),  precedes  the  full  rollout  of  flagship  schemes  on  housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, financial inclusion, and other major efforts towards improving school attendance, nutrition, mother and child health, etc. Hence, it serves as a useful source for measuring the situation at baseline i.e. before large-scale rollout of nationally important schemes. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Swachh Bharat  Mission  (SBM),  Pradhan  Mantri  Sahaj  Bijli  Har  Ghar  Yojana  (Saubhagya),  Pradhan Mantri  Ujjwala  Yojana  (PMUY),  Pradhan  Mantri  Jan  Dhan  Yojana  (PMJDY),  POSHAN Abhiyaan and Samagra Shiksha are some of those schemes and programmes.

7. The  household  microdata  collected  at  the  unit  level  for  the  NFHS  serves  as  the  basis  of  the computation of National MPI. This unit level micro data collected in 2015-16 has been used in the baseline MPI report to derive an idea of baseline multidimensional poverty i.e. where the country was with respect to MPI before the full-scale rollout of the above-mentioned schemes. The progress of the country with respect to this baseline will be measured using the NFHS-5 data collected in 2019-21.
8. Substantive gains achieved through focussed programmatic interventions and flagship schemes since NFHS 4 (2015-16) is reflected in the NFHS 5 (2019-21) India report for indicators under the purview of the National MPI. The progress report, a follow-up to the baseline National MPI report, will capture this reduction in multidimensional poverty between 2015-16 (NFHS 4) and 2019-21 (NFHS 5). This report will be released shortly.
9. The National Multidimensional Poverty Index: Baseline Report based on NFHS - 4 (2015-16) ranks  the  States  and  Union  Territories  based  on  headcount  ratio.  The  headcount  ratio  is  the proportion  of  multidimensionally  poor  individuals  in  the  total  population  based  on  the computation  of  deprivation  based  on  twelve  indicators  mentioned  in  para  4  above.  The following table presents the ranking of States and Union Territories by Headcount Ratio:

| State             | Headcount Ratio (%)   |
|-------------------|-----------------------|
| Kerala            | 0.71%                 |
| Goa               | 3.76%                 |
| Sikkim            | 3.82%                 |
| Tamil Nadu        | 4.89%                 |
| Punjab            | 5.59%                 |
| Himachal Pradesh  | 7.62%                 |
| Mizoram           | 9.80%                 |
| Haryana           | 12.28%                |
| Andhra Pradesh    | 12.31%                |
| Karnataka         | 13.16%                |
| Telangana         | 13.74%                |
| Maharashtra       | 14.85%                |
| Tripura           | 16.65%                |
| Uttarakhand       | 17.72%                |
| Manipur           | 17.89%                |
| Gujarat           | 18.60%                |
| West Bengal       | 21.43%                |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 24.27%                |
| Nagaland          | 25.23%                |
| Odisha            | 29.35%                |
| Rajasthan         | 29.46%                |
| Chhattisgarh      | 29.91%                |
| Assam             | 32.67%                |
| Meghalaya         | 32.67%                |
| Madhya Pradesh    | 36.65%                |
| Uttar Pradesh     | 37.79%                |
| Jharkhand         | 42.16%                |
| Bihar             | 51.91%                |

| UT                      | Headcount Ratio (%)   |
|-------------------------|-----------------------|
| Puducherry              | 1.72%                 |
| Lakshadweep             | 1.82%                 |
| Andaman& Nicobar Island | 4.30%                 |
| Delhi                   | 4.79%                 |
| Chandigarh              | 5.97%                 |
| Daman &Diu              | 6.82%                 |
| Jammu &Kashmir &Ladakh  | 12.58%                |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli     | 27.36%                |

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