Multi-dimensional poverty index- a state level analysis of India

The concept of poverty, over the years, has been analysed only in a uni-dimensional way based on income and consumption but this fails to give a real picture of the problem. Therefore in recent time many authors have put forward the idea of analysing poverty in a multidimensional way taking into consideration various aspects like well-being, employment, nutrition, health, education, etc. This article is an extension of Alkire and Santos’s 2008 work on Measuring Multidimensional Poverty in India. Using their methodology for calculating Multidimensional Poverty Index this study takes into account different variables of Standard of Living, Health and Education and calculates MPI for India. For the calculation three rounds of National Family and Health Survey data has been used and an index has been formulated for each state of India. Poverty disparity existing between rural and urban areas of the country has been highlighted along with intra-urban imbalances. Further the paper tries to link the overall multi-dimensional poverty scenario in India with that of Female multi-dimensional deprivation. Finally the study tries to compare the results of MPI calculated with other published reports and datasets and find out the reasons for existing discrepancies.