Child Poverty

Poverty in childhood is particularly devastating, often impacting on children’s physical, cognitive and social development. It can undermine their physical and mental health, setting children on a lifelong trajectory of low education levels and reduced productivity and sustaining intergenerational cycles of poverty.

While the largest costs of child poverty are borne directly by children themselves, society also pays a high price. Child poverty damages children’s life chances and harms us all.

To have calculate the poverty profile for each of the state, we used a multidimensional index which uses different factors to determine poverty beyond income-based lists.

It does this capturing the severe deprivations that each child faces at the same time with respect to education, health and living standards. The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level. The multidimensional approach can be used to create a comprehensive picture of children living in poverty, and permits comparisons both across the states.

The following indicators were used to draw up a poverty profile

• Percentage of Underweight Children
• Primary School Attendance Rate
• Child Mortality Rate
• Percentage of Skilled Attendant at Birth for all pregnancies
• Percentage of Population with Access to Drinking Water
• Percentage of Population with Acesss to Basic Sanitation