India has achieved a remarkable feat in reducing multidimensional poverty, which measures the deprivation of people in various aspects of life such as health, education, and living standards. According to a NITI Aayog report, as many as 24.82 crore people in India have moved out of multidimensional poverty in the past nine years, showing the country’s progress towards becoming a developed nation.
The report, titled ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06’, revealed that India has registered a significant decline in multidimensional poverty from 29.17 per cent in 2013-14 to 11.28 per cent in 2022-23 – a reduction of 17.89 percentage points. The report used projected estimates to assess the poverty levels in the year 2013-14 against the current scenario (i.e. for the year 2022-23), due to data limitations for these specific periods.
The report also showed that the pace of decline in poverty headcount ratio using exponential method was much faster between 2015-16 to 2019-21 (10.66 per cent annual rate of decline) compared to period 2005-06 to 2015-16 (7.69 per cent annual rate of decline).