Multidimensional poverty index: 6 residents out of every 100 in City Beautiful are ‘poor’

Adviser (UT) Dharam Pal expressed his surprise over findings of the survey. Talking to the Indian Express, Adviser Dharam Pal said, “I am surprised to hear about the findings of the survey. The per capita income of Chandigarh is better than many states and UTs. I will check the report. 5.97 percent of the total population of Chandigarh is huge. I will have to check the sources of these findings.”

Prof Aswini Nanda of Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) said, “Multidimensional poverty includes many factors related to a person including literacy, income, health, age, house, living standards, etc. Under multidimensional surveys, we can not count only the annual/monthly income of the person. All other aspects are also included in the survey.” Prof Aswini Nanda has been working in National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 and 5.

Sources said, “The MPI is based on the baseline report of National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4, which was conducted in 2015-16. The things were shown improved in the survey as per NFHS 5 conducted in 2019-20. There must be improvement in Chandigarh in the next report.”

The report precedes the full rollout of flagship schemes on housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, financial inclusion, and other major efforts towards improving school attendance, nutrition, mother and child health, etc. Hence, it serves as a useful source for measuring the situation at baseline, which is before large-scale rollout of nationally important schemes. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), POSHAN Abhiyaan and Samagra Shiksha are some of the schemes and programmes.