Poverty Reduction

India has fought mass poverty since independence. Rather than income alone, the national Multidimensional Poverty Index — built with Oxford's OPHI and the UNDP — measures deprivation across health, education and living standards, using 12 indicators from nutrition and schooling to cooking fuel, sanitation, electricity and bank accounts. It fell from 29.17% in 2013-14 to 11.28% in 2022-23.

NITI Aayog estimates that about 24.82 crore people escaped multidimensional poverty over those nine years — a 17.89 percentage-point fall in the headcount. The sharpest declines were in Uttar Pradesh (5.94 crore), Bihar (3.77 crore), Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Schemes for cooking gas, toilets, tap water, housing, electricity and bank accounts each chipped away at a dimension of poverty.

India attacks poverty on two fronts at once. Direct support puts money and essentials in people's hands — free foodgrains for over 80 crore people, cash transfers, subsidised housing, cooking gas and health cover. Enablers then help families climb out for good — bank accounts, toilets, electricity, roads and jobs. Poverty is measured not just by income but 'multidimensionally' — counting health, education and living standards together.

By the government's multidimensional measure, about 24.8 crore people escaped poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23, and the World Bank now puts India's extreme poverty in the low single digits. The next step is measuring it better and finishing the job — reaching the hardest-to-help households, making the escape permanent (not one shock away from falling back), and shifting from handouts toward stable, better-paying jobs.

The next step is measuring it better and finishing the job — regular income-poverty surveys alongside the deprivation-based index, since around 16 crore Indians remain multidimensionally poor.

MPI headcount 29.17% (2013-14) → 11.28% (2022-23); ~24.82 crore escaped; UP (5.94 cr) & Bihar (3.77 cr) led; 12 indicators. Source: NITI Aayog / OPHI-UNDP.