The percentage of Bhutanese living in multidimensional poverty reduced from 5.8 per cent in 2017 to 2.1 per cent last year. Multidimensional poverty assesses if a person is deprived of health, education, and certain living standards. The report published by the National Statistics Bureau, last month, shows that improvements in access to cooking fuel and schooling, and a reduction in child mortality as the reasons for the drop in multidimensional poverty.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index report looks at individuals and households who may not be acutely poor but face multiple deprivations in health, education, and living standards.
The dimensions are further divided into 14 indicators like access to health, water, school attendance, sanitation, electricity, road, housing, and Internet among others.
Among the districts, the percentage of people in multidimensional poverty is highest in Samtse at 16.5 per cent followed by Gasa with 15.4 per cent.
On the other hand, despite having the lowest multidimensional poverty rate, Thimphu has the highest number of poor people.
Similarly, among the four thromdes, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar thromdes have almost 3000 people who are deprived of at least one of the 14 indicators.
Phuentshogling Thromde has over 2,000 multidimensionally poor people and Thimphu Thromde has over 7,000 poor people.
The report also states that 80 per cent of the rural population in the country does not have access to at least one of the multidimensional poverty indicators.
Meanwhile, access to health is the highest contributor to national multidimensional poverty at 18 per cent. This means that 18 per cent of the country’s population must walk 30 minutes or longer to reach the nearest health facility.
The report also shows that almost all people have access to electricity but only over 70 per cent of the population have access to electricity without interruption.
On the other hand, while safe drinking water coverage is almost 100 per cent, only about 80 per cent of the population have access to the 24-hour water supply.
The Multidimensional Poverty Index report is published every five years.
Tshering Deki
Edited by Sherub Dorji
