Andhra Pradesh, which is performing well on most indicators considered for Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) such as housing, electricity, cooking fuel, school attendance and bank accounts, still lags behind in several key areas like access to drinking water, years of schooling, sanitation, child adolescent mortality and nutrition.
The findings are part of the baseline report of MPI released by NITI Aayog in November 2021.
MPI is a measure which explores poverty beyond income deprivations and is a tool for policymakers working for the Sustainable Development Goals, 2020 agenda. NITI Aayog released the baseline report of MPI and the report presented the status of headcount ratios, intensity of poverty, and MPI value of India and all the States and Union Territories (UTs).
While Kerala has the lowest MPI score of 0.003, Andhra Pradesh had fared well with an MPI score of 0.046. Among the 12 key indicators, A.P. still has concerns over lack of nutrition with 26.38% of people not having access to proper and balanced nutrition, 16.90% not having proper school attendance, and 22.70% not having access to proper sanitation.
The State has done well in housing (14.70%), electricity (0.5%) and maternal health (9.66%).
Guntur leads the State with the lowest poverty with an MPI score of 0.034 while Kurnool stands at the bottom of the table with an MPI score of 0.094. Anantapur, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Prakasam, Vizianagaram, and Kurnool districts have higher poverty levels.
The findings are enclosed in the Socio Economic Survey (2021-22) and are included in the chapter on Poverty Employment and Unemployment.
The State has been at the forefront of introducing several poverty alleviation programmes for women empowerment, providing housing for all, and other measures like pensions, land distribution and health insurance. The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme had played a major role in poverty alleviation and supplementing incomes during the pandemic.
Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, in his budget speech, said that A.P. has so far disbursed ₹1.75 lakh crore under DBT and non-DBT schemes.
The State government has also given house sites to over 30 lakh people and hopes to complete construction of houses in both rural and urban areas by the end of 2023.
