National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) – A Progress Review 2023 released by the NITI Aayog on Monday has indicated a steep decline in poverty in Telangana to 5.88% during 2019-21 based on the National Family Health Survey-5 with rural areas registering a phenomenal 12% improvement in the living standards. Poverty in the State as per NFHS-4 was 13.18% during 2015-16.
The report released by the policy think-tank has clearly indicated that the rural populace has outclassed their urban counterparts in the improvement of living standards as the multidimensional poverty in the rural areas has come down to 7.51% in 2019-21 from 19.51% — a decline of 12% against just about 2.2% in urban areas. Urban poverty, which was 4.92% in 2015-16, receded to 2.73% in 2019-21.
The NITI Aayog report has mentioned that of the 12 indicators on which the multidimensional poverty index has been measured, the government interventions have an increasingly visible impact on the ground on all indicators such as nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, years of schooling, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, bank account and maternal health in case of censored headcount — percentage of total population who are multidimensionally poor and are deprived on indicators.
