BHOPAL: It’s not the best of news in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh , but the Global Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index 2018 has ranked MP the fourth poorest in the country, with Alirajpur the poorest district in India — with the almost same parameters as Sierra Leone in Sub-Saharan Africa, it says.The multi-dimensional poverty index covers over 100 developing countries and has been a part of UNDP’s Human Development Report ever since it was developed in 2010 by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). This is first time that MP has featured in the poverty index — there is no mention of the state or Alirajpur in at least the previous two reports.The report — based on data from 2015-16 — says Bihar is the poorest with more than half of its population living in poverty, followed by Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. These four states hold 22% of the country’s land area and 34% population but account for over half of the country’s poor — a whopping 196 million of the 364 million — says the study. What’s more, 50% ST population in these states is still poor despite decades of welfare schemes and reservation in education and jobs.Alirajpur, on the westernmost fringe of MP, has been categorised as the poorest of India’s 640 districts. A shocking 76.5% of the population here is poor. Two-time MLA from Jobat constituency in Alirajpur district , BJP’s Madho Singh Dawar, acknowledged that the fight against poverty has been an uphill battle. Asked why the district fared so poorly in the survey, he said: “It is a tribal-dominated area with large forest area due to which has remained poor.”Malnutrition is the largest contributor, responsible for 28.3% of poverty in India, the report says. Not having a household member with at least six years of education is the second largest contributor, followed by lack of clean drinking water and child mortality.Alirajpur collector Ganesh Shankar Mishra does not agree that the district is poorest in the country.“There are concrete houses and toilets in the district. I have not seen this particular report. It is a tribal dominated district and ground reality is different from the report,” he said. He acknowledged that people of Alirajpur go to work in Gujarat instead of working under MGNREGA here because they get better wages.In poll-bound MP, the report has given ammo to the opposition. “It brings to light the reality of MP and Alirajpur. The government has given only fake assurances over the years. Even the CM’s hometown, Vidisha, is among the backward districts, what to speak of other parts of the state,” said Congress state media committee vicepresident Bhupendra Gupta.BJP contests the study, with party spokesperson Hitesh Vajpayee saying, “MP has been a poor state since Independence, but it has improved considerably over the last decade. This has been mentioned in several reports nationally and internationally.”Global MPI makes its rankings on 10 indicators — education, health and living standard, nutrition, child mortality, access to clean water, cooking fuel, sanitation, electricity, housing and assets.

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