New Delhi: While the NITI Aayog has said in a new report that 24.8 crore people have been lifted out of multidimensional poverty in the nine years leading up to 2022-23, experts of the economy have raised doubts over this claim.The multidimensional measure looks at the areas covered in the 12 sustainable development goals across health, education and standard of living.“Multidimensional poverty in India was found to decline from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23 with about 24.82 crore people escaping poverty during this period. At the States’ level, Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 5.94 crore people escaping poverty followed by Bihar at 3.77 crore and Madhya Pradesh at 2.30 crore,” the report states.The report claims that some of the government’s initiatives – like Poshan Abhiyan, Anaemia Mukt Bharat, Ujjwala and others – have played “a crucial role” in addressing different aspects of deprivation.It also says that India is likely to achieve the SDG of “halving multidimensional poverty” well before 2030.Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted about the government think-tank’s report, saying, “Very encouraging, reflecting our commitment towards furthering inclusive growth and focusing on transformative changes to our economy. We will continue to work towards all-round development and to ensure a prosperous future for every Indian.”However, The Telegraph reported, experts have raised some serious doubts over the use of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) to make these claims.“The MPI simply tells us the percentage of people unable to access certain facilities provided by the government or (that are) available to them,” retired Indian Economic Services officer K.L. Datta told the newspaper. “It is not used by planners and policymakers to fix targets, nor is it used as an input to make plans for poverty reduction. To sum up, the MPI does not represent poverty. The government is trying to project the MPI estimate as a substitute for the poverty ratio. This is not right.”Economist Sunil Ray, former director of the A.N. Sinha Institute, Patna, said, “How can a nation achieve SDG when its government has to ensure the survival of more than two-thirds of its population [through the National Food Security Act]? The government is giving this freebie because the people are not self-dependent.”Economist and rights activist Jean Drèze also expressed reservations about the use of the MPI. “(The) MPI does not include any indicator of short-term purchasing power. Thus, we must read MPI data along with other information, including recent evidence of sluggish growth in real wages,” he told The Telegraph. “MPI data can complement but not substitute for poverty estimates from consumer expenditure surveys that are long overdue.”Asis Banerjee, economist and former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University, added that while the MPI could not be used as a measure of poverty, this particular government also cannot take credit for a reduced MPI. “It (MPI) has been declining for quite some time now and not just in the last nine years. Most studies show the credit for this goes to measures initiated before the change of government at the Centre in 2014,” he told the newspaper.He also said, “…there is the big mystery as to why there has been a slide in India’s performance on the World Hunger Index in recent times if there has been such impressive reductions in poverty.”India was ranked 111 among 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index report released by two European agencies on October 12, 2023. The only countries ranking lower than India were Timor-Leste, Mozambique, Afghanistan, Haiti, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Chad, Niger, Lesotho, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Madagascar, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Burundi and Somalia.
