In its first Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) report released on Friday, the Niti Aayog said Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh were found to be the poorest states in the country. They were followed by Madhya Pradesh and Meghalaya in the index.
According to the report, 51.91 per cent of the population in Bihar is poor, followed by 42.16 in Jharkhand, 37.79 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 36.65 per cent in Madhya Pradesh and 32.67 per cent in Meghalaya.
Among Union territories, Dadra and Nagar Haveli ( 27.36 per cent), Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh (12.58), Daman & Diu (6.82 per cent) and Chandigarh (5.97 per cent) have emerged as the poorest in the country.
Puducherry, with 1.72 per cent of its population as poor, Lakshadweep (1.82 per cent ), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (4.30 per cent) and Delhi (4.79 per cent) have fared better.
States that have registered lowest poverty across the country are Kerala with only 0.71 per cent of its population falling in that category, followed by Goa (3.76 per cent), Sikkim (3.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (4.89 per cent) and Punjab (5.59 per cent).
Bihar also has the highest number of malnourished people followed by Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Bihar also ranks worst when it comes to percentage of population deprived of maternal health, percentage of population deprived of years of schooling, school attendance and percentage of population deprived of cooking fuel and electricity.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework, adopted by 193 countries in 2015, has redefined development policies, government priorities, and metrics for measuring development progress across the world.
The SDG framework, with 17 global goals and 169 targets, is significantly wider in scope and scale relative to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), its predecessor.
Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar in his foreword said, “The development of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index of India is an important contribution towards instituting a public policy tool which monitors multidimensional poverty, informs evidence-based and focused interventions, thereby ensuring that no one is left behind.”
