Multidimensional Poverty Index, 2021: Five of top six states with highest population deprived from adequate housing provision are from northeast region

The National Multidimensional Poverty Index, Baseline Report, 2021 published by the NITI Aayog has revealed 76.80 per cent population of Manipur, 76.15 per cent of Arunachal Pradesh, 69.30 per cent of Assam, 67 per cent of Tripura, 66.40 per cent of Nagaland, and 55.40 per cent of Meghalaya do not have a proper housing provision. In sharp contrast Goa has the lowest percentage of 9.50 of population deprived from adequate housing provision.

Manipur tops the state-wise list of highest percentage of population deprived of proper housing.

Significantly, five of the top six states in the list– Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, and Nagaland are from northeast region. Arunachal Pradesh ranks second, Assam ranks third and Tripura ranks fourth. Among other northeastern states, 26.20 per cent population of Sikkim and 24.17 per cent of Mizoram do not have a proper housing system. Bihar ranks fifth while Nagaland ranks sixth.

The Report defines housing deprived as “a household is deprived if it has inadequate housing: the floor is made of natural materials, or the roof or walls are made of rudimentary materials and cooking fuel deprived as “a household is deprived if the primary source of cooking fuel is dung, agricultural crops, shrubs, wood, charcoal or coal”.

With 28.50 per cent population living in deprivation of drinking water Manipur also topped the state-wise list in this category. The Report defines deprivation of drinking water is “a household is deprived if it does not have access to improved drinking water or safe drinking water is more than a 30-minute walk from home (as a round trip).”

The Report also reveals that 69.20 per cent population of Meghalaya, 60.50 per cent of Assam, 56.50 per cent of Nagaland, and 56.20 per pent population of Tripura are still living in deprivation of efficient cooking fuel.

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Among other northeastern states, 46.80 per cent population of Arunachal Pradesh, 28.70 per cent of Manipur, 23.40 of Sikkim and 16.80 population of Mizoram living in deprivation of efficient cooking fuel.

The Report, has revealed alarming picture of multi-dimensional poverty-in terms of population deprived in nutrition, child and adolescent mortality rate, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets and bank account.

With 32.67 per cent, nearly one third of the population in the state being multidimensionally poor, the national index has placed Assam at the fifth rank with Bihar on the top of the list with the highest 51.91 per cent of its population living in multidimensional poverty. Assam shares this rank with Meghalaya.

The state-wise list of multi-dimensional poverty has shown that apart from Bihar, Madhya Pradesh (36.65 per cent) Uttar Pradesh (37.79 per cent), Jharkhand (42.16 per cent) are the three states having high multidimensional poverty than Assam and Meghalaya.

Among the north-eastern states, with only 3.82 per cent population living in multi-dimensional poverty, Sikkim has the lowest population living in multi-dimensional poverty, according to the Report. With 25.20 multi-dimensional poverty index, Nagaland ranked 10^th while Arunachal Pradesh ranked 9^th with 24.27 per cent from bottom of the state-wise list of population living with multi-dimensional poverty. Manipur has the multidimensional poverty index of 17.89 and in Tripura it is 16.65 per cent.

Sikkim ranks also the third best performer at national level, Kerala is the best performer among all the states with only 0.71 per cent population living in multi-dimensional poverty. Kerala is followed by Goa with 3.76 per cent population living in multi-dimensional poverty.

The Reports states, an alarming 39.67 per cent population of Assam and 37.50 per cent population

Of Meghalaya is nutrition deprived. Meghalaya also has the highest 3.10 per cent rate deprived population in child-adolescent mortality followed by Assam with 2.90 per cent. With 33.06 per cent population living in deprivation of maternal health, Nagaland topped the list among all northeastern states. This is followed by Meghalaya with 31.70 per cent and Arunachal Pradesh with 28.34 per cent.

The Report defines nutrition, child-adolescent mortality as follows:

Nutrition: A household is considered deprived if any child between the ages of 0 to 59 months, or woman between the ages of 15 to 49 years, or man between the ages of 15 to 54 years -for whom nutritional information is available- is found to be undernourished.

Child-Adolescent Mortality: A household is deprived if any child or adolescent under 18 years of age has died in the household in the five-year period preceding the survey.

Maternal Health: A household is deprived if any woman in the household who has given birth in the 5 years preceding the survey has not received at least 4 antenatal care visits for the most recent birth or has not received assistance from trained skilled medical personnel during the most recent childbirth.

The Report states 19.71 per cent population of Arunachal Pradesh, 17.77 per cent in Meghalaya, and 16.19 per cent in Assam are deprived in terms of years of schooling.

It reveals Manipur has the highest 35.10 percent population deprived of proper sanitation, followed by Assam with 31.50.

The Report defines Education and sanitation as follows:

Education: The ‘Education’ dimension is represented by parameters pertaining to school attendance and years of schooling, with each indicator – weighted at 1/6 - carrying half of the dimension weight (1/3) for Education. The definitions and cut-offs for the indicators remain unchanged and aligned with the Global MPI.

Years of Schooling: A household is deprived if not even one member of the household aged 10 years or older has completed six years of schooling.

School Attendance: A household is deprived if any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which he/she would complete class 8.

Sanitation: The household has unimproved or no sanitation facility or it is improved but shared with other households.

In terms of deprivation of assets Nagaland topped among all the north-eastern states 33.91 followed by Meghalaya with 29.88 and Arunachal Pradesh with 23.36 per cent.

A huge 28.66 per cent population of Nagaland do not have a bank account, the Report also states.

The Report defined deprivation of drinking water, electricity, ownership pf assets and bank account as follows.

Electricity: A household is deprived if it has no electricity.

Ownership of Assets: The household is deprived if it does not own more than one of these assets: radio, TV, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator; and does not own a car or truck.

Bank Account: No household member has a bank account or a post office account.

NEZINE Bureau

Source: https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-11/National_MPI_India-11242021.pdf