According to a report released on Monday by NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery, 46 lakh people in Assam moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-2016 and 2019-2021.

The report ‘National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023’, released in the presence of members of NITI Aayog Dr. V K. Paul and Dr. Arvind Virmani, and B. V. R. Subrahmanyam, CEO NITI Aayog, stated that a record 13.5 crore people moved out of multidimensional poverty in India.

While the country registered a decline of 9.89 percentage points in number of India’s multidimensionally poor from 24.85% in 2015-2016 to 14.96% in 2019-2021, Assam registered a decline of 13.30 percentage points in the same period.

A total of 46,87, 451 people in Assam moved out of multidimensional poverty between 2015-2016 and 2019-2021. In Manipur, a total number of 2,81, 803 moved out of multidimensional poverty. The next is Nagaland with 2,14, 354, Meghalaya with a population of 1,56, 738 followed by Tripura with 1,43, 237, Mizoram with 54,665, and Sikkim 8,326.

In Assam, the proportion of multidimensionally poor has come down from 32.65 percent in 2015-2016 to 19.35 percent in 2020-2021. Arunachal Pradesh has registered a decline of 10.48 percent, Nagaland 9.73 percent, Manipur 8.86 percent, Meghalaya 4.76 percent, Tripura 3.50 percent and Sikkim 1.21 percent.

Based on the latest National Family Health Survey (2019-2021), this second edition of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) represents India’s progress in reducing multidimensional poverty between the two surveys, NFHS-4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21). It builds on the baseline report of India’s National MPI launched in November 2021. The broad methodology followed is in consonance with the global methodology.

The National MPI measures simultaneous deprivations across the three equally weighted dimensions of health, education, and standard of living that are represented by 12 SDG-aligned indicators. These include nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts. Marked improvement is witnessed across all 12 indicators.

According to the report, India has registered a significant decline of 9.89 percentage points in number of India’s multidimensionally poor from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-2021. The rural areas witnessed the fastest decline in poverty from 32.59% to 19.28%. During the same period, the urban areas saw a reduction in poverty from 8.65% to 5.27%. Uttar Pradesh registered the largest decline in the number of poor with 3.43 crore people escaping multidimensional poverty. Providing multidimensional poverty estimates for the 36 states and union territories and 707 administrative districts, the report states that the fastest reduction in the proportion of multidimensional poor was observed in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan.