The correct information about how terrible the picture of poverty in the world is revealed in a statistic. The situation in India is the most critical in the world. According to the latest poverty index, 1100 million people in the world are living in extreme poverty. Half of it is mainly from 5 countries. Among which India is the first.
By Ibrahim Khalil Ahasan
A recent United Nations assessment found that over one billion people live in extreme poverty, with almost half of them in conflict-affected nations.
According to an index released Thursday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), countries at war have higher levels of deprivation across all indicators of “multidimensional poverty,” with “markedly more severe” disparities in access to water and sanitation, electricity, and nutrition.
According to the Multidimensional Poverty Index, 455 million people live “in the shadow of conflict,” and 1.1 billion people live in poverty, according to research conducted across 112 nations and 6.3 billion people.
Achim Steiner of the UNDP stated that “conflicts have escalated and multiplied in recent years, reaching new heights in casualties, displacing record millions of people, and causing widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods.”
According to the index, 584 million individuals under the age of 18 lived in severe poverty, making up 27.9 percent of all children globally as opposed to 13.5 percent of adults.
The report was prepared by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the initiative of Oxford University. It is said that 83 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas. A similar number of poor people live in countries south of the Sahara desert in South Asia and Africa. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been published by the United Nations and Oxford since 2010. The report is prepared based on 10 criteria including health, education, quality of life. This year, 6.3 billion people in 112 countries were surveyed. Based on that, the poverty index is created. The two organizations said the report focused more on poverty studies in conflict zones. Because, after the Second World War, there have been more military conflicts around the world in 2023. 11.70 crore people have been displaced due to conflicts, disasters and other reasons. The survey found that 45.5 crore multidimensionally poor people live in conflict zones. They are 3 to 5 times more deprived of access to nutrition, education, drinking water and a healthy environment than the poor in peaceful areas. Besides, the number of unemployed people has increased due to the spread of the coronavirus worldwide. Millions of people are unemployed. As a result, global poverty has increased.
According to World Bank data, extreme poverty is defined as the person who lives on less than 1.90 dollars (161 rupees) per day. The World Bank fears global economic output will shrink by more than five percent – wiping out efforts by the world’s poorest countries to eradicate poverty.
We think that the world’s financial institutions and international donor organizations should extend their helping hand in this regard. Unless significant progress is made in alleviating poverty and improving people’s living standards, global poverty will increase. Therefore, the international world must take proper steps to alleviate poverty.
Ibrahim Khalil Ahasan, a Dhaka, Bangladesh-based independent columnist and freelance journalist, writer on contemporary international issues whose work has been published in many local and international publications.
