25% of Indians poor on MPI metric, says NITI Aayog report

Report uses methodology developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and UNDP, says NITI Aayog Chairman Rajiv Kumar.

Basing itself on the National Health Family Survey (NHFS) for 2015-16, the NITI Aayog has said in that year one in every four people in India was multidimensionally poor.

“The headcount ratio answers the question ‘how many are poor?’ India’s national MPI (multidimensional poverty index) identifies 25.01 per cent of the population as multidimensionally poor,” the report said.

NITI Aayog Chairman Rajiv Kumar said India’s national MPI measure used the globally accepted and robust methodology developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Chief Executive Officer Amitabh Kant said the index