Budget 2020: Niti Aayog shocker; Poverty, hunger and income inequality up in 22 to 25 States and UTs
Forget GDP growth rate for the moment. Niti Aayog's SDG Index 2019, released on December 27, 2019, says that more Indians have fallen into poverty, hunger and income inequality in the past two years. This is after a remarkable reduction in poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16
- Jan 8, 2020,
- Updated Jan 9, 2020 3:12 PM IST
Nothing could have been more pleasant than this bit of news - reproduced below - from the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2018 report of the UNDP-Oxford University which was released in September 2018.
India's MPI - measuring poverty through multiple deprivations in health, education and living conditions through 10 indicators which involved mapping India's 640 districts in 2015-16 - had gone down substantially, by 271 million, in 10 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16, beating China's performance.
Among other things, the report said India still had 364 million MPI poor of which 156 million (34.6%) are children. "In fact, of all the poor people in India, just over one in four - 27.1% - have not yet celebrated their tenth birthday. The good news is that multidimensional poverty among children under 10 has fallen the fastest. In 2005/6 there were 292 million poor children in India, so the latest figures represent a 47% decrease or 136 million fewer children growing up in multidimensional poverty."
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The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2018 report of the UNDP-Oxford University had pointed out, among other things, that (a) "In 2015/16, the four poorest states - Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh - were still home to 196 million MPI poor people - over half of all the MPI poor people in India" and (b) "Traditionally disadvantaged subgroups such as rural dwellers, lower castes and tribes, Muslims and young children are still the poorest in 2015/16".
But going by the Niti Aayog's 2019 SDG India report, it seems poverty, hunger and income inequality have spread far and wide and need urgent attention.
Having released this report just a month ahead of the 2020-21 budget, the Niti Aayog should have recommended specific plans, policies and strategies to address these concerns.
Now that it hasn't, the task for the government, or more specifically the Finance Ministry which would be presenting the budget is well cut out.
Nothing could have been more pleasant than this bit of news - reproduced below - from the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2018 report of the UNDP-Oxford University which was released in September 2018.
India's MPI - measuring poverty through multiple deprivations in health, education and living conditions through 10 indicators which involved mapping India's 640 districts in 2015-16 - had gone down substantially, by 271 million, in 10 years between 2005-06 and 2015-16, beating China's performance.
Among other things, the report said India still had 364 million MPI poor of which 156 million (34.6%) are children. "In fact, of all the poor people in India, just over one in four - 27.1% - have not yet celebrated their tenth birthday. The good news is that multidimensional poverty among children under 10 has fallen the fastest. In 2005/6 there were 292 million poor children in India, so the latest figures represent a 47% decrease or 136 million fewer children growing up in multidimensional poverty."
Also Read:
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2018 report of the UNDP-Oxford University had pointed out, among other things, that (a) "In 2015/16, the four poorest states - Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh - were still home to 196 million MPI poor people - over half of all the MPI poor people in India" and (b) "Traditionally disadvantaged subgroups such as rural dwellers, lower castes and tribes, Muslims and young children are still the poorest in 2015/16".
But going by the Niti Aayog's 2019 SDG India report, it seems poverty, hunger and income inequality have spread far and wide and need urgent attention.
Having released this report just a month ahead of the 2020-21 budget, the Niti Aayog should have recommended specific plans, policies and strategies to address these concerns.
Now that it hasn't, the task for the government, or more specifically the Finance Ministry which would be presenting the budget is well cut out.