Budget 2026: 24.82 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty under Modi govt, Sitharaman tells Parliament
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Budget 2026: 24.82 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty under Modi govt, Sitharaman tells Parliament")
Indian Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, poverty Photograph: (WION Web Desk)
Budget 2026: 24.82 crore Indians escaped multidimensional poverty under Modi govt, Sitharaman tells Parliament
Indian Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Sunday (Feb 1), while presenting the Budget 2026-27, revealed that in the past ten years, 24.82 crore people escaped multidimensional poverty in India. Citing NITI Aayog’s discussion paper ‘Multidimensional Poverty in India since 2005-06’, she said this was achieved due to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's significant initiatives to address all dimensions of poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23.
Assisting poor and vulnerable groups a priority
Sitharaman said that the “Government has been giving priority to assisting urban poor and vulnerable groups.” She announced that a scheme for socio-economic upliftment of urban workers will be implemented to “help them improve their incomes, have sustainable livelihoods and a better quality of life. ”
For the welfare of online platform workers, the Indian Finance Minister announced a social welfare scheme that will “arrange for their identity cards and registration on the e-Shram portal ”. This will enable gig workers to avail of “healthcare under PM Jan Arogya Yojana.”
“This measure is likely to assist nearly 1 crore gig-workers,” noted the Indian union minister.
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What is Multidimensional Poverty?
Rather than measuring poverty solely by income, multidimensional poverty considers the simultaneous non-monetary deprivations affecting health, education, and living standards. This is measured by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI). The MPI is a globally recognised, comprehensive measure that captures poverty in multiple dimensions beyond monetary aspects. Its global methodology is based on the robust Alkire and Foster (AF) method that identifies people as poor based on universally acknowledged metrics designed to assess acute poverty, providing a complementary perspective to conventional monetary poverty measures.
