the most common profile affecting 39 per cent of poor people includes deprivations in exactly four indicators nutrition cooking fuel sanitation and housingmore than 455 million poor people are deprived in only these four indicators of those people 344 million live in india 21 million in bangladesh and 19 million in pakistan making this a predominantly south asian profile it saidin some countries subnational regions that were initially among the poorest in their country reduced poverty faster in absolute terms than the national average narrowing the poverty gap these include bihar jharkhand and uttar pradesh in india 20152016 20192021the report said the reduction in multidimensional poverty index mpi value in india was swift across the two most recent periodsof the nearly 415 million people who exited poverty in india in the 15 years prior to the covid19 pandemic roughly 275 million did so between 20052006 and 20152016 and 140 million did so between 20152016 and 20192021the countrys mpi value and incidence of poverty were both more than halved indias progress shows that this goal is feasible even at a large scale it saidthe report noted that the effects of the covid19 pandemic on poverty in india cannot be fully assessed because 71 per cent of the data from the 20192021 demographic and health survey for the country were collected before the pandemicthe 20192021 data show that about 164 per cent of indias population live in poverty with an average intensity of 42 per centabout 42 per cent of the population live in severe poverty about 187 per cent of people roughly the same proportion as in 20152016 are vulnerable to poverty because their deprivation score ranges from 20 per cent to 33 per cent twothirds of these people live in a household in which at least one person is deprived in nutrition a worrying statistic it saidthe percentage of people who are poor is 212 per cent in rural areas compared with 55 per cent in urban areas rural areas account for nearly 90 per cent of poor people 205 million of the nearly 229 million poor people live in rural areas making them a clear prioritynoting that children are still the poorest age group the report said that in india more than one in five children are poor 218 per cent compared with around one in seven adults 139 per cent this translates to 97 million poor childrenindia is the only country in south asia in which poverty is significantly more prevalent among femaleheaded households than among maleheaded households about 197 per cent of people living in femaleheaded households live in poverty compared with 159 per cent in maleheaded householdsone in seven households is a femaleheaded household so around 39 million poor people live in a household headed by a womanindias reduction in mpi value continued to be propoor in absolute terms as it was from 20052006 to 20152016 the report said rural areas were the poorest and saw the fastest reduction in mpi value