Editorial»
Mirror, mirror
JUL 14 -
The findings of a new UN-backed study of world poverty throws a completely new light into poverty in the South Asian region. On the basis of the newly devised Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), researchers at the Oxford Poverty and Human development Initiative (OPHI) at Oxford University conclude that there are more poor people in eight Indian states than there are in the 26 poorest African countries. The MPI, which replaces the UN’s Human Poverty Index in use since 1997, goes beyond the traditional concept of poverty which places a disproportionate weight on income levels. It also takes into account the ease of accessibility to services (electricity, water and sanitation) as well as other health and income related indicators (quality of household air, education level, etc). According to its developers, MPI is an ‘integrated’ measure of poverty.
MPI findings throw up some interesting facts. Poverty at different places, it turns out, are fuelled by different factors, even within the same country. For instance, in the Indian state of Jharkhand the main cause of poverty were found to be asset deprivation, low air quality and poor quality of work, whereas in the state of Gujarat, nutrition ranked as the biggest contributor to poverty. In Bhutan, deprivation in electricity, education, room and income were the primary determinants of rural poverty. The research findings in the near abroad give Nepali policymakers plenty of food for thought.
Officially, the proportion of Nepalis living below the poverty line has been brought down to under 25 percent, from the level of 42 percent in 1996. But the poverty-line measure reflects no more than people’s earning capacity. It fails to take into account the accessibility to basic services like health, education and sanitation or the quality of their immediate environment. Nor does it reflect the growing income gap between the rich and the poor in Nepal. The latest study’s conclusion that half of the world’s MPI poor people live in South Asia suggests that Nepal is home to a fair share of them.
Continued political instability and increasing insecurity would be reflected in Nepal’s score. So will the dismal delivery of essential services. At present, most of the country goes without electricity for nearly a third of the day. It is unable to meet the drinking water needs of more than half the population of the rapidly-expanding urban centres. And even after massive outbreaks of water-borne diseases, which claimed the lives of hundreds of people, sanitation services in Midwestern districts like Surkhet and Jajarkot are almost non-existent. In this situation, it wouldn’t at all be surprising if Nepal’s overall MPI score is worse than some of the poorest Indian states.
Posted on: 2010-07-15 10:30
Headlines
Advertisements
