The United Nations (UN) on Saturday said that India moved 415 million people out of poverty within 15 years between the years of 2005/06 to 2019/21. With this, the United Nations highlighted the remarkable achievement by the World’s most populous country.

The latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford.

It says that 25 countries, including India, have halved their global MPI values successfully within 15 years, showing that rapid progress is possible. The countries include Cambodia, China, Congo, Honduras, Indonesia, Morocco, Serbia and Vietnam.

As per UNDP, “..India saw a remarkable reduction in poverty, with 415 million people exiting poverty within a span of just 15 years (2005/6–19/21). Large numbers of people were lifted out of poverty in China (2010–14, 69 million) and Indonesia (2012–17, 8 million)...”

The report noted that deprivation in all indicators declined in India and “the poorest States and groups, including children and people in disadvantaged caste groups, had the fastest absolute progress.” According to the report, people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived under the nutrition indicator in India declined from 44.3% in 2005/2006 to 11.8% in 2019/2021, and child mortality fell from 4.5% to 1.5%. “Those who are poor and deprived of cooking fuel fell from 52.9% to 13.9% and those deprived of sanitation fell from 50.4% in 2005/2006 to 11.3% in 2019/2021,” according to the report.

In the drinking water indicator, the percentage of people who are multidimensionally poor and deprived fell from 16.4 to 2.7 during the period, in electricity it fell from 29% to 2.1% and in housing from 44.9% to 13.6%.

The global MPI monitors poverty reduction shows how people suffer poverty in different aspects in their lives, from access to education and health to standard of living such as housing, electricity, drinking water and sanitation.