Multidimensional Poverty Index

The NITI Aayog's latest report on Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) at the national, state/Union Territory and district level reveal a gloomy picture of Assam, with 32.67% of its total population in the state of being multidimensionally poor. The desired goal for Assam should be to move further away from Bihar which has the highest 51.91% population living with multidimensional poverty and surpasses Kerala which has less than one per cent of its population living in multidimensional poverty. Aligned with the target of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, the MPI expands the scope of poverty estimation under the traditional measures based on income and consumption and consider deprivation of a household in respect of a set of indicators. The NITI Aayog has estimated the poverty in three key dimensions of health, education, and standard of living based on deprivation across 12 indicators which will help the states to identify the gaps and take corrective measures. The report mentions that the baseline report on MPI is based on National Family Health Survey round 4 (2015-2016) which was carried out before full roll-out of flagship schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, Swachh Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. An updated baseline report based on the findings of the NFHS-5 (2019-2020) is expected to provide a clearer picture if the states have implemented these flagship schemes well to alleviate the condition of the households gripped by poverty and multidimensional deprivation. Data related to Assam in "India: National Multidimensional Poverty Index Baseline Report" released by the NITI Aayog show that a higher percentage of people with multidimensional poverty like Hailakandi, Dhubri, Karimganj, Cachar, Goalpara, Barpeta, Darrang pushed the state's MPI while Kamrup (Metropolitan) district has the lowest 11.04 % of the population living with multidimensional poverty. Under the health dimension, a household is considered to be deprived of computing MPI, if any woman in the household who has given birth in the 5 years preceding the survey has not received at least four antenatal care visits for the most recent birth or has not received assistance from trained skilled medical personnel during the most recent childbirth. The NFHS-5 (2019-2020) statistics for Assam show that only 50.7% of mothers had at least four antenatal care visits in the state-49.2% in rural areas and 62.6% in urban areas. The NITI Aayog states in the MPI report that even if a household has access to an improved water source, it will be considered deprived if the source is more than a 30-minute roundtrip walk from home. The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) dashboard shows that to date only 25.72% of rural households in the state have tap water connections. Although the state recorded a significant improvement from the level of only 1.76% of rural households having functional tap water as of August 15, 2019, it has to race against time to provide every rural household functional tap water connection to get reflected in the updated MPI report. The JJM dashboard holds out to the mirror to the Assam government that of total 25,335 villages in the state only 1543 villages have 100% households having functional tap connections while works are in progress in 9,854 villages but work has not started in 55% of villages that work has not yet started. A progress dashboard that the NITI Aayog is developing will help the states to track the progress of implementation of various schemes and projects aimed at reducing deprivations of households across indicators used in MPI estimations. Strengthening the monitoring and evaluation of the schemes and projects under implementation can help the state government identify the critical gaps and plan focussed action to fill the gaps. To ensure smooth fund flow for the projects and schemes, it is important for executing departments or agencies to submit utilization certificates in time to facilitate the release of subsequent instalments. The concept of multidimensional poverty encompasses multiple dimensions of human development which requires all stakeholders to look at poverty alleviation schemes and programmes beyond augmenting household income and expenditures. This means even if the income of a farmer's household is increased by ensuring remunerative prices either through government or private procurement, the particular household will continue to be deprived of access of the household members in respect of the three dimensions of MPI estimation and indicators remain unchanged. The MPI baseline report is a ready reckoner for the Assam government to develop its template for mapping the government schemes and programmes that have direct impact in reducing deprivation in the three dimensions and the related indicators. Formulating an effective plan of action to reduce multidimensional poverty in the state is crucial for the State government achieving its dream of making Assam one of the top five states of the country.