Why in news?
- A survey conducted by Oxford finds that the country’s 217 million children, nearly 50% endure multidimensional poverty.
- About 31% of the world’s “multidimensionally poor” children live in India, according to a new report by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).
What is importance of the issue?
- A “multidimensionally poor” child is one who lacks at least one-third of ten indicators, grouped into three dimensions of poverty: health, education and standard of living.
- The health dimension comprises indicators such as nutrition, child mortality, and education.
- Under standard of living are indicators such as access to cooking fuel, improved sanitation, safe drinking water, electricity, flooring, and asset ownership.
- In terms of the number of such multidimensionally poor children as a proportion of the total population, India stood 37th among 103 countries.
What is the way forward?
- In terms of absolute numbers, India accounts for both the highest and a staggering number of multi-dimensionally poor people.
- 528 million Indians are poor, which is more people than all the poor people living in Sub-Saharan Africa combined.
- multidimensionally poor children were “simultaneously deprived” in 58% of the indicators.
- the findings are “deeply disturbing”, This is a wake-up call to the international community which has adopted the global Sustainable Development Goals and takes seriously Goal 1, the eradication of poverty in all its forms and dimensions.
Source: The Hindu
