UNDP-Oxford Poverty Report: why it’s good news for India, BJP-Congress fight & why both are right

In the last 15 years, India has lifted 415 million out of poverty, according to the the United Nations Development Programme & the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)’s latest Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022 report. In episode 1097 of #CutTheClutter , ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta explains why it’s good news for Indian, the political fight between Congress & BJP over it and why both are right.

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Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2022 report:
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[tvdhananjayan]

Quotable quote from Shekhar sir, "There are absolutes and then they are percentages."

[Harsh-rfk]

in my childhood, villagers didn't even have money for food, milk, vegetables etc.
now that's very rare.
it's visible atleast in my village

[biswaroopmaiti]

It reminds me of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's idea of PURA: he had a 2020 vision of providing urban amenities in rural areas by 2020. Even though we missed that target but at least he was able to point to the main issues ailing our people which may have helped bring progress.

[pushkarpandey]

Saying UPA and NDA govts reduced poverty undermines all the individual states and their govts who have worked tirelessly all these years and have actually created impacts on people's lives

[nrusimha]

Important CTC. The most important news in my opinion is that the traditional lower income states are catching up. This is not the only big and positive change happening in India. Economists have to put the poverty numbers in context with the remarkable improvements in direct benefits transfer efficiency and the overall improvement in efficiency in many things like infrastructure, which improve productivity and ultimately incomes.

[SaurabhKumar-ejkw]

As a Bihari I am partially happy but there is a long way to go..thanks Shekhar ji 🙏 and print team

[varunyadav]

Bro most of us have office next day…. Plz dont make us wait till midnight

[daljeet]

Would have been good to see the trend of 15 years. The Audience would have got visibility on which year onwards it improved significantly

[dungaribateka]

Shekhar, What do you think of reliability of our poverty data. I come from a bordering village in Kutch, Gujarat. Here everyone has bpl card and receive free ration every month but almost nobody would qualify as poor by those standards and same is the case with most parts in Gujarat at least. Now i know situation in states like bihar as you mentioned in much worse but still I think our poverty percentages are highly overestimated. All the welfare benefits incentives many people to identify as poor.

[GinzaGeorge]

The point on nutrition vs. hunger is invaluable. Great episode. Power-packed with data. Thank you so much.

[anupvkale]

Pretty insightful CTC, thanks to Professor Guptaji and team. I think positive news is, we are on the right track and will eradicate poverty in next few decades.

[philip]

Thank you for bringing clarity to all that we here about world hunger report. We have a long way to go although we have improved a lot as a nation.

[balumaliakel]

The speed at which we are bringing above poverty is still very slow. Corruption in politics and burecracy still remains the single largest reason. Delay in implementation of various projects is still very serious concern. Private sector is given so much barriers and ease of doing business is still very pathetic in many states..

[NarendraKumar-hqbv]

Excellent Shekharji! Thanks. Also, who brings all out of poverty? All of us productive people. Not really "politicians". They need to simply play less politics. That is the lesson...

[nandi]

How can we justify identifying farmers as a poor, when 23cr Indians don't earn 150rupees. We give 6000 to farmers who own land worth lakhs and let poor children, as little as 3 years old, collect plastic waste for living.

[gopalbhargava]

Guptaji's analysis, as always, neither good nor bad.

[realhumphreyappleby]

Poverty and Urbanisation are undeniably linked as Shekhar says. That's why we need better connectivity in our cities. Mumbai needs to grow larger in geography to accomodate many more people since real estate prices make it unaffordable for many to move here.
That's why we desperately need the Metro and that's why I really get triggered when I see Aditya Thackeray and his silver-spoon fed coterie standing outside Aarey to sabotage an essential infrastructure project in the city.

[tapasya]

Is 1.9$/ day taking inflation into account? Curious.

[sujanagavirneni]

The analysis is very good, but, what I see on the ground is that, no one is eating the ration rice in Telangana and the PDS rice of Rs.1 per kg is availed by the card holders & selling the same to the retail shops at Rs.10 per kg and the so called poor ( card holders)buying fine rice at Rs.40 to 50 per kg for personal consumption. So poverty on the ground is very very rarely seen.

[IndranilFromIndia]

This is great news! That too after a long time. India's Human Development index is also quite low. I hope government keeps sincerely pushing.