The incidence and intensity of poverty are more important in determining poverty based on income alone. In this context analyse the latest United Nations Multidimensional Poverty Index Report. (Answer in 250 words)

Income poverty measures resources, but poverty is also experienced through simultaneous deprivations in health, education and living standards. The UN Multidimensional Poverty Index therefore complements monetary estimates by measuring incidence and intensity.

The global MPI, produced by UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, assesses ten indicators across three dimensions: nutrition and child mortality; years of schooling and school attendance; and living standards such as cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets. A person is multidimensionally poor when weighted deprivations cross the prescribed threshold. The index combines the headcount ratio with the average intensity of deprivation.

• Recent reports show that multidimensional poverty remains concentrated in low-income countries, rural areas, children and marginalised communities.
• Many poor people face several deprivations simultaneously, so a similar income level can conceal very different lived realities.
• Progress before the pandemic was uneven, while COVID-19 threatened schooling, nutrition, health access and livelihoods.
• India’s MPI profile has recorded substantial reductions in multidimensional poverty over the longer term, but regional, social-group and rural-urban disparities remain.

MPI helps governments identify the specific deprivation affecting each household and design convergent interventions such as nutrition, sanitation, housing, electricity and schooling. It is particularly useful for monitoring SDGs and targeting districts.

Survey periodicity, missing indicators, threshold choices and limited measurement of quality, inequality and intra-household deprivation constrain comparability. MPI should therefore supplement, not replace, income, consumption and employment data.

Effective poverty reduction requires simultaneous improvement in capabilities and living conditions, with locally disaggregated data and outcome-based policy.

Global MPI; UNDP; OPHI; incidence; intensity; health; education; living standards; SDGs.