Comparison of Poverty Measures: Human Poverty Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index
Author : Dr. G Jagadishwar
Abstract :
Poverty is said to exist when people lack the means to satisfy their basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. Poverty is defined in several ways by various economists, with each approach attempting to best capture deprivation. The simplest way to define poverty is by considering only the income, with the two terms, namely ‘Absolute poverty’ and ‘Relative poverty’. The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was introduced in 1997 and is a composite index which assesses three elements of deprivation in a country i.e., longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. Limited utility is main disadvantage of HPI, because it combined average deprivation levels for each dimension and thus could not be linked to any specific group of people. Therefore, since 2010, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) in association with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has introduced a new international measure of poverty-the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI.
Keywords :
Poverty, HPI, MPI, UNDP, OPHI
