Multidimensional Poverty Index

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is a composite poverty measure that captures the overlapping deprivations households experience across multiple non-income dimensions. It was developed in 2010 by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford in partnership with the UNDP, and it replaced the earlier Human Poverty Index in the Human Development Report. The MPI is grounded in the Alkire-Foster (AF) method, devised by Sabina Alkire and James Foster, which uses a dual cut-off counting approach: a deprivation cut-off within each indicator and a poverty cut-off across the weighted sum of indicators. A person is identified as multidimensionally poor if deprived in at least one-third (33%) of the weighted indicators. The index draws conceptual lineage from Amartya Sen's capability approach, which holds that poverty is the deprivation of capabilities and freedoms, not merely low consumption.

The global MPI is built on three equally weighted dimensions — health, education, and standard of living — disaggregated into ten indicators. Health covers nutrition and child mortality; education covers years of schooling and school attendance; the standard-of-living dimension covers cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, and assets. The headline figure, MPI = H × A, multiplies the headcount ratio (H), the proportion of people who are multidimensionally poor, by the intensity (A), the average share of deprivations poor people experience. This property — sensitivity to intensity — allows the index to satisfy dimensional monotonicity, distinguishing it from a simple headcount. It is decomposable by region, social group, and indicator, enabling targeted policy.

India's national variant, the National Multidimensional Poverty Index, is published by NITI Aayog in consultation with OPHI and UNDP, and uses twelve indicators by adding maternal health and bank accounts to align with national priorities such as the SDGs. It draws on the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data. NITI Aayog's discussion paper (January 2024) reported that roughly 24.8 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23, with the national MPI headcount falling from about 29.17% (2013-14) to 11.28% (2022-23). The global MPI 2023, released by UNDP and OPHI, estimated India had the largest absolute reduction, with about 415 million people exiting poverty between 2005-06 and 2019-21. States such as Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttar Pradesh recorded the fastest declines.

For the exam, the MPI is a high-yield topic in UPSC General Studies Paper III (Indian economy, inclusive growth, poverty estimation) and in current-affairs sections tracking NITI Aayog reports and UNDP releases. The typical question angle contrasts the MPI with income-based poverty lines (Tendulkar and Rangarajan committees), asks for the dimensions and indicators and their weights, or links the index to Sen's capability framework and SDG monitoring. Candidates should remember the 33% poverty cut-off, the H × A formula, the OPHI-UNDP authorship, the AF methodology, and India's twelve-indicator national variant versus the ten-indicator global MPI.