An Individual-Specific Approach to Multidimensional Child Poverty in India: a Study of Regional Disparities

Child poverty has recently been deemed a crucial component of poverty by development economists and policymakers. The global multidimensional poverty estimates indicate, in India, more than one-third of the under-five children experience multidimensional poverty. Using the recent Demographic and Health Survey data of India, 2019-21, Alkire-Foster’s methodology was applied to estimate and decompose multidimensional poverty among children aged 0–59 months across its six regions. Based on child-specific SDG targets 15 indicators were selected covering five broad dimensions for constructing the multidimensional child poverty index (MCPI or M0). It is observed that the deprivation rates across the indicators varies widely across the regions. In terms of both headcount ratio (H) and M0, Eastern (H = 49.4, M0 = 0.222), Central (H = 44.2, M0 = 0.19), and North-eastern (H = 43.9, M0 = 0.184) regions have remarkably higher values, and the Southern region (H = 11.2, M0 = 0.042) have exceptionally lower values. At the national level, poor children were more deprived in the dimensions of standard of living and Early Childhood Development. Except for Western and Southern regions, all regions show a similar pattern. Unavailability of TV/Radio, not being vaccinated in time, inadequate sanitation, unclean cooking fuel and subpar housing condition are the leading contributors to M0 of all regions with varying magnitude and order. The contribution of drinking water, electricity and assisted delivery is remarkably lower in all the six regions. The findings imply that in order to eliminate multidimensional child poverty and safeguard children’s rights, social policy must be developed with an emphasis on the age, region, dimensions and indicators of MCP.