A total of 234 million persons are living below the poverty line in India, the highest in the world, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
Released on Thursday, the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report used the most recent comparable data available for 112 countries – 21 low-income countries, 47 lower-middle-income countries, 40 upper-middle-income countries and four high-income countries.
Multidimensional poverty was measured by constructing a deprivation profile for each household and person in it covering 10 indicators of health, education and standard of living.
Across 112 countries and 6.3 billion people, 1.1 billion persons, or 18.3% of the total, live in acute multidimensional poverty. Over half of those living in poverty are children.
In Pakistan, 93 million people are living below the poverty line, while the number is 86 million for Ethiopia, 73 million for Nigeria and 66 million for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Together with India, these five countries account for nearly half, or 48.1% of the 1.1 billion living in poverty.
The report showed that nearly half the world's poor live in Sub-Saharan Africa (553 million) and over a third in South Asia (402 million).
It also pointed out that nearly 40%, or 455 million persons below the poverty line live in nations facing war and instability.
“That includes 218 million people living in countries at war, 335 million living in fragile or conflict-affected situations and 375 million living in very low or low peace contexts,” said the report. “Some 289 million (25.1%) experience two or more of these three conditions, while 184 million (16%) experience all three.”
In countries affected by war, the overall poverty rate is 34.8%, significantly higher than the 10.9% in countries not experiencing conflict, said the report, adding that multidimensional poverty is more than twice as high in fragile, conflict-affected and low-peacefulness nations.
“Conflicts have intensified and multiplied in recent years, reaching new highs in casualties, displacing record millions of people, and causing widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods,” Achim Steiner, the United Nations Development Programme Administrator, was quoted as saying by PTI.
Steiner said that there is an urgent need for increased resources and access to specialised development and recovery programs to effectively support those in poverty and break its cycle.
According to the report, more than 83% of poor people live in rural areas, where poverty rates are higher than in urban areas. Globally, 28% of the rural population is poor, compared to just 6.6% of the urban population.
It also pointed out that a significant portion of the 1.1 billion persons lack necessities: 828 million do not have adequate sanitation, 886 million lack proper housing and 998 million do not have access to cooking fuel. Moreover, over half live with someone who is undernourished, totalling 637 million.
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