Why in the News?
Kerala will be officially declared free from extreme poverty on November 1st, marking a national first in poverty eradication.
To assess this, Kerala relied on NITI Aayog’s assessment of Kerala using its Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
What is Extreme Poverty?
- Overview: According to the World Bank, extreme poverty is defined as living on less than $2.15 per day (2017 Purchasing Power Parity), representing absolute deprivation.
- Revised Thresholds: In 2025, the World Bank updated the extreme poverty benchmark to $3/day (PPP 2021) for low-income countries, reflecting inflation and rising living costs.
- Measurement Basis: It uses Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to compare cost of living across countries and Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) data as a proxy for income.
- Nature: Extreme poverty signifies absolute poverty, unlike relative poverty, which measures inequality within societies.
- Indicators: It encompasses lack of access to essentials such as food security, safe housing, healthcare, education, clean water, and sanitation.
Extreme Poverty in India:
- Overview: India has achieved major success in reducing extreme poverty through inclusive growth and welfare-based redistribution over the past decade.
- Global Benchmark: As per the World Bank (2025), India’s extreme poverty rate declined from 27.1% (2011–12) to 5.3% (2022–23), among the fastest reductions globally.
- Population Impact: Nearly 270 million people were lifted out of extreme poverty; those living below the $3/day threshold fell from 344 million to 75 million.
- Rural Transformation: The decline was steeper in rural India, supported by flagship programmes like MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojana, National Food Security Act (NFSA), and Ayushman Bharat.
- Social Protection Role: Expansion of direct benefit transfers (DBT), PDS coverage, and rural employment improved income security and consumption stability.
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What has Kerala achieved?
- Milestone: Kerala has been officially declared free from extreme poverty as of November 1, 2025, becoming the first Indian state to achieve this feat.
- Programme Launch: The Extreme Poverty Eradication Programme began in 2021, following one of the first Cabinet decisions of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.
- Scale: Out of 64,006 families identified as extremely poor, 59,277 families have been uplifted after targeted interventions across housing, health, and livelihoods.
- Interventions:
- Houses built for 3,913 families and land allotted to 1,338 families.
- Repairs up to ₹2 lakh provided for 5,651 homes.
- Essential documents like ration and Aadhaar cards issued to 21,263 individuals.
- Methodology: Each family was covered through a micro plan, integrating state welfare schemes and social audits with geo-tagged verification.
- Outcome: Kerala now has 0% extreme poverty, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 1) to eradicate poverty by 2030.
- Significance: The achievement demonstrates Kerala’s model of inclusive governance, where local bodies, irrespective of political control, collaborated to ensure last-mile welfare delivery.
[UPSC 2012] The Multi-dimensional Poverty Index developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support covers which of the following?
1. Deprivation of education, health, assets and services at household level
2. Purchasing power parity at national level
3. Extent of budget deficit and GDP growth rate at national level
Select the correct answer using the codes given below:
(a) 1 only *
(b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3 |
