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.
