Multidimensional Poverty in Urban Maharashtra About Us

Multidimensional Poverty in Urban Maharashtra, 2019

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Project Narrative

The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), with financial support from UNICEF and approval of the Government of Maharashtra, had undertaken a preliminary study on understanding “Multidimensional Poverty in Urban Maharashtra (MPUM)”. The study aimed to understand the extent and nature of multidimensional poverty in urban Maharashtra using secondary data, develop a sampling frame and instrument for a primary survey to estimate a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for urban localities of Maharashtra. In the subsequent phase, the primary survey is intended to provide estimates of multidimensional poverty across six administrative regions and various types of urban localities of Maharashtra. Results of the study will help in framing state-level policies and in designing mid and long-term programs to address the challenges of increasing urbanization and poverty in urban Maharashtra.  However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, the primary survey could not be launched as of date.

Issues and Challenges of Urbanisation in Maharashtra

The demographic transformation of urban population in Maharashtra poses several challenges to planners, policy makers and the Government. Some of the key challenges are the widening gap between demand for and supply of basic services such as water, sanitation, educational and health services, inadequate infrastructure (transport, energy), unaffordable housing, increasing pollution and safety and security of vulnerable population. Besides this, the skewed pattern of development leading to increasing disparities among varying urban localities is also a challenge.

Poverty Measurement in India

Poverty reduction is one of the priority agendas globally and nationally. In India, the official poverty estimates are based on consumption expenditure data collected by the National Sample Surveys (NSS). The poverty estimates varies largely across states and regions of India. According to latest estimates by the Planning Commission, in urban Maharashtra, 17.4% of population in 20011-12 were living below poverty line compared to 38.1% in 2004-05 (Tendulkar Committee, 2014).  These consumption poverty estimates are often revised owing to reference period, basket of goods and services, and do not capture the multiple deprivations of the population. Understanding the nature and extent of multidimensional poverty assume significance in urban India and specifically in urban Maharashtra owing to pattern of urbanization, rural-urban migration, increasing inequality in urban areas and limitation of existing poverty measures to capture the extent of poverty.

Why Newer Data and Estimates of Multidimensional Poverty?

Multidimensional poverty takes into account multiple factors that constitute poor people's experience of deprivation; poor health, lack of education, lack of access to basic services and inadequate living standards. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) assess the nature and intensity of poverty at the individual level by measuring overlapping deprivations poor people experience simultaneously. MPI can help in identifying the most vulnerable people - the poorest among the poor, revealing poverty patterns within geographies and over time, and hence, enabling policy makers to target resources and design policies more effectively.

We conceptualized the study primarily of followings:

  1. The current estimates of multidimensional poverty fail to capture the extent and nature of multiple deprivation in urban areas. This is largely because of the NFHS data is not adequate to capture the dimension and indicators of multidimensional poverty.
  2.   Poverty is increasingly measured in multidimensional space and the multidimensional poverty has been integrated to global and national development agenda.

For example, currently, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) estimates that 16.8% of population in Maharashtra are multidimensionally poor with an MPI value of 0.070. Similarly, 3.3% of population in Mumbai district were estimated to be multidimensional poor (Alkire et al, 2018). This suggests that the existing methodology and variables do not capture the extent of multidimensional poverty in urban Maharashtra. Multidimensional poor are likely to incur catastrophic health spending and poor health outcomes (Mohanty 2011; Mohanty 2018).

Financial Sponsors:

  • UNICEF

Principal Investigator :

Dr. Sanjay K. Mohanty
Professor, Department of Fertility Studies,
International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar
Mumbai – 400 088, Maharashtra, India
Dr. R. B. Bhagat
Professor, Department of Migration & Urban Studies,
International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar
Mumbai – 400 088, Maharashtra, India
Dr. Laxmi Kant Dwivedi
Professor, Department of Mathematical Demography & Statistics,
International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar
Mumbai – 400 088, Maharashtra, India

Project Staffs :

Raman Mishra
Data Analyst

Anshul Kastor
Technical Writer

Somendu Sen
Project Officer

Amol Dadas
Senior Research Officer

Santosh Kumar Sharma
Data Analyst

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