Report: Here Is How YCP’s Navaratnalu Pays Off!

The NITI Aayog report which put Andhra Pradesh on the top of the list of multi-dimensional poverty index has brought cheers to the YCP government. Ahead of the elections, the YCP government has something to boast about in the hustings.

Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Navaratnalu, which was implemented uninterruptedly even during the pandemic, has paid off.

According to the National Multi-dimensional Poverty Index: A progressive review’ report released by NITI Aayog on Monday, Andhra Pradesh has recorded 6.06 per cent poverty in 2019-2021 against 11.77 per cent in 2015-16, which means that the state has seen a drop of 5.71 per cent from 2015-16 to 2019-2021.

The report was prepared basing on the comparative data between the fifth round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) for the period of 2019-21 and NFHS-4 for the period of 2015-16.

The MPI measures simultaneous deprivations across three equally weighted dimensions — health, education and standard of living that are represented by 12 (Sustainable Development Goals) SDG-aligned indicators — nutrition, child and adolescent mortality, maternal health, years of schooling, school attendance, cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, electricity, housing, assets, and bank accounts.

AP has shown a remarkable improvement in all the indicators. The data for the report has been collected from the 13 erstwhile districts in the State.

Significantly, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam and Prakasam, considered backward districts, recorded a significant improvement in the index.

In Vizianagaram, poverty dropped to 8.66 per cent in 2019-21 from 19 per cent in 2015-16. In Srikakulam, the figure stood at 5.20 per cent, down from 14.01 per cent. On the other hand, Prakasam saw a drop in multi-dimensional poverty to 6.28 per cent from 13.84 per cent.

In the Rayalaseema region, Kurnool had the highest multi-dimensional poverty of 19.64 per cent in the State in 2015-16 and it dropped to 12.84 per cent in 2019-21. Kadapa saw multi-dimensional poverty drop to 3.34 per cent in 2019-21 from 9.14 per cent in 2015-16. In Anantapur, it dropped from 12.47 per cent to 6.74 per cent.

In Chittoor, the population of poor dropped to 5.66 per cent in 2019-21 from 9.64 per cent in 2015-16. The least improvement was noticed in East Godavari, as the population of multi-dimensionally poor dropped to 6.13 per cent in 2019-21 from 8.51 per cent.