Pakistan ranks better than India, Bangladesh on poverty scale

LAHORE: Pakistan is in a state of turmoil but still it is far better ranked than India and Bangladesh as is revealed by Multidimensional Poverty Index released by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is an international measure of acute poverty covering 101 developing countries. The MPI complements income-based poverty measures by reflecting the multiple deprivations that people face. The Global MPI has three dimensions and 10 indicators.
Each dimension is equally weighted and each indicator within a dimension is also equally weighted. The dimensions include education, health and standard of living with a total score of 100.
Under Health, the nutritional status and child mortality is recorded. Under the educational dimension, years of schooling and school attendance is recorded. While, under standard of living, electricity, sanitation, water, floor, cooking fuel and other assets are recorded.
A person is identified as multi dimensionally poor (or ‘MPI poor’) if he is deprived of at least one third of the weighted indicators. In other words, the cut-off for poverty is at 33.33 percent. The proportion of the population that is multi dimensionally poor is measured through the incidence of poverty, or headcount ratio. Average proportion of the indicators in which poor people are deprived is called the intensity of poverty. If a person is deprived in 20-33.3 percent of the weighted indicators they are considered ‘vulnerable to poverty’, and if they are deprived in 50 percent or more, they are identified as being in ‘severe poverty’.
According to the index, Pakistan’s MPI is 0.230 and the percentage number of poor is 44.2 percent. The intensity of poverty across the poor is around 52.1 percent, where 15.1 percent of the population is vulnerable to poverty, 23.7 percent lives in severe poverty, and 20.7 percent is classified as destitute. Destitute people are those deprived of even basic amenities of life.
The MPI for Bangladesh is 0.253 and the percentage of number of poor is 51.3 percent. The intensity of poverty across the poor is 49.4 percent, where 20.4 percent of the population is vulnerable to poverty, 21.7 percent lives in severe poverty, and 17.2 percent is classified as destitute.
The MPI for India is 0.283 and the percentage number of poor is 53.7 percent. The intensity of poverty across the poor is 52.7 percent, where 16.4 percent of the population is vulnerable to poverty, 28.6 percent lives in severe poverty, and 28.5 percent is classified as destitute.
The MPI for urban Pakistan is 0.087 and for rural is 0.299. Incidence of poverty in urban Pakistan is only 20 percent compared with 55.7 percent found in rural areas. Islamabad is the most affluent region of the country with MPI of around 0.039 with only 9.2 percent people living in poverty of which 2.5 percent living in severe poverty or is destitute.
Punjab has lesser poverty than other provinces as its MPI is 0.189 with 36.6 percent living in poverty. It is followed by federally administered Northern Areas with MPI of 2.33 and poverty rate of 46.9 percent.
KPK has MPI of 0.247 and poverty rate of 50.1 percent, Sindh’s MPI is 0.294 and its poverty rate is 53.2 percent. Balochistan is the poorest province of the country with MPI of 0.402 and poverty incidence of around 70.6 percent.