The national MPI provides a high-level view of the level of multidimensional poverty and its change

with time and its effects on people . This presents an overall picture of poverty in the country, while
also enabling more closer and more in-depth analyses of areas of interest such as regions –State or
districts, and specific sectors –under the dimensions of health and nutrition, education and living
standards giving more wide view to measure severity and intensity of poverty persists among
population.
Sen described the or unidimensional poverty measurement in his monumental work “Poverty: An
Ordinal Approach to Measurement”  but
he also acknowledged that it is difficult
to replicate this ordinal approach in day to day life as it will be difficult
to measure among population.
The global multidimensional poverty index in 2021 covers 5.9 billion people of 109 countries
worldwide which includes 26 low-income, 80 middle-income and three high-income. The findings
indicate that one in every five persons are multidimensionally poor in these 109 countries combining,
which represents approximately 1.3 billion people, and 41% (532 million) of them exist in the South
Asian countries. Despite preforming very good and experiencing the largest reduction in the number
of multidimensionally poor people during the decade 2006–16 , India has more than 381 million of the
multidimensionally poor, accounting for a whopping proportion of 72% multidimensionally poor in
South Asia .

Because many people lost their jobs due to Covid Crisis , they were unable to meet their essential
needs, their consumption expenditure reduced directly affecting aggregate economy and they
became impoverished . As a result, due to the latest crisis, India may witness a significant increment
in its poverty rate in the near future.

Provision of providing access to clean cooking fuels, affordable and improved sanitation, providing
safe and accessible drinking water, better free healthcare services, promote education for all, aid
housing assets accumulation for the poor, electricity subsidies coverage etc. is important for
individual’s well being and It would facilitate in reducing the headcounts as well as the intensity of
multidimensional poverty so that its economy may be placed on a high growth trajectory. 

Multidimensional poverty index assists policymakers in examining the poor’s joint deprivation, allowing
them to implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and cover those left behind. So,
here we tried to present the current status of multidimensional poverty in india and some suggestive
policy actions to reduce it.