Recently, Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021 was released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI)"

Key findings

Worldwide, across 109 countries and 5.9 billion people:

• 1.3 billion people are multidimensionally poor.
• About half (644 million) are children under age 18.
• Nearly 85 percent live in Sub-Saharan Africa (556 million) or South Asia (532 million).
• More than 67 percent live in middle-income countries.

But what is the day-to-day reality of life for multidimensionally poor people? The data paint a grim picture:

• 1 billion each are exposed to solid cooking fuels, inadequate sanitation and substandard housing.
• 788 million live in a household with at least one undernourished person.
• 568 million lack improved drinking water within a 30-minute roundtrip walk.

Finding in Indian context