Multidimensional Poverty and Longevity in India

Minimum basic needs of human being has extended from the food and shelter & clothing to health and education. Collectively all four basic human needs lead to the productive human resource, which in turn attain all basic human needs. Such development has changed the definition of poverty from merely a function of nutrition and price level based income to the multi dimension of human poverty; long term household economic condition, health status of the household members and education attainment. Encompassing the all dimensions of poverty, multidimensional poverty affects the overall health of the population measured in terms of life expectancy. In this paper multidimensional poverty and corresponding life expectancy has been calculated using NFHS1 (1992-93) and NFHS3 (2005-06) data for India and major states. Results show that 8% households were below poverty line in 1992-93 which reduced to 4% in 2005-06 with the corresponding life expectancy of 60 and 63 years respectively. Relative improvement in life expectancy during 1992-2006 is lowest among the persons belonging to the multidimensional poor household. Implying that highest achievement in population health, life expectancy, could be achieved through the improvement of all three dimensions health, education and economic condition of the poorest section of the society.