As per World Bank, Poverty is a “pronounced deprivation in well-being” which includes low incomes and the inability to acquire basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity.
Incidence (H): The proportion of the population who are multidimensionally poor (i.e., deprived in a set share of weighted indicators).
Intensity (A): The average share of deprivations experienced by the multidimensionally poor.
MPI value (H × A): Combines incidence and intensity, capturing both how many are poor and how deprived they are beyond the income dimension.
Why Incidence and Intensity Matter More than Income Alone
Comprehensive Understanding: Income tells how much money people have, while incidence and intensity show what capabilities they lack.
Reveals Depth of Deprivation: Two people may have the same income, but one may suffer more due to lack of education or sanitation – intensity captures this depth.
Targets Policy Better: Helps governments identify which dimensions (health, education, housing) need priority investment.
Explains Poverty Despite Income Growth: India’s poverty rate has declined (2.35% extreme poverty, World Bank 2024), yet hunger, malnutrition, and illiteracy persist – showing income growth doesn’t equal welfare growth.
Measures Human Development, Not Just Economics: Aligns with Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach – poverty is deprivation of basic freedoms and opportunities, not just low income.
Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Report 2025
Global Poverty Statistics – 1.1 billion (18.3%) people in acute multidimensional poverty. Majority are young, rural, and living in low human development countries
MPI Reduction Trends – Of 88 countries with comparable data, 76 saw a decline in MPI at least once
Multidimensional Poverty in India
Poverty fell from 55.1% (2005-2006) to 16.4% (2019-2021)
About 415 million people exited multidimensional poverty
Poverty and Climate Interlinkages
32 million people displaced by climate-related shocks in 2022
309 million poor people live in regions with three or four overlapping climate hazards
Without strong climate action, extreme poverty could nearly double by 2050
MPI Across Income Levels
64.5% of global poor live in middle-income countries
55.5% in lower-middle-income nations
9% in upper-middle-income nations
Common Global Deprivations
Clean cooking fuel: 970 million deprived
Adequate housing: 878 million deprived
Sanitation: 830 million deprived
Undernutrition: 635 million deprived
Children out of school: 487 million deprived
Limitations of the Global MPI
Data Gaps: Many countries rely on outdated or incomplete household surveys; MPI data lags actual conditions.
Uniform Weights and Indicators: Equal weighting (health, education, living standards) may not reflect local priorities or contexts.
Intra-country Variations: National averages mask disparities between rural-urban areas, genders, and regions.
No Vulnerability Capture: MPI measures current deprivation but not people at risk of falling back into poverty.
Way Forward
Social Determinants Approach: Integration of hunger and poverty with nutrition, sanitation (Swachh Bharat), and clean energy (Ujjwala Yojana).
Adopt data-driven local interventions under Aspirational Districts Programme to target high-burden regions.
Adopt Brazil’s Bolsa Família conditional cash transfer scheme
Poverty is the worst form of violence – Mahatma Gandhi.
A whole of government and whole of society approach is needed to achieve SDG-1