55% of India's Population is Poor - Gujarat 9th MPI Rank

A report says, 55% of India's Population is Poor! 645 Million People are poor as measured by Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI). Developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) for the United Nations Development Programmes (UNDP) forthcoming 2010 Human Development Report,the MPI attempts to capture:

Income poverty line
Education - years of schooling and child enrollment
Health - child mortality and nutrition
Standard of Living - Electricity,Flooring,Drinking water,Sanitation,Cooking fuel and assets

Gujarat seems to have 40% of population living in poverty as per the new composite measure. The incidence of poverty and its intensity are both measured. No wonder, so many of them are under nourished and education is far way distant dream. Though all efforts are tuning to success for the government in upgrading education level and focusing on health issues, it might turn the poverty ratio to lessen as the State Development growth may provide ample job opportunities to somewhat eradicate poverty.

Gujarat stand as 9th in MPI Rank. The stats read:

Gujarat 57.3 Population in millions (2007)
MPI - 0.205
Proportion of poor - 41.5%
Average Intensity - 49.2%
Contribution to overall poverty - 3.4%
Number of MPI Poor in millions - 23.8

I guess it is thoughful to take to task on issues that concern poverty though the development itself speaks of tremendous growth.

What do you think? Can you suggest measures to further eradicate poverty in Gujarat?

- ilaxi