Correlates of multidimensional poverty in rural Bihar

Reducing poverty has been the cornerstone of several development policies. Yet, reducing it on income level has not yielded much result, as income-based poverty fails to capture other dimensions of deprivations. This study, using data from the 7^th DHS survey, constructs a Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) for 38 districts of rural Bihar and its correlates. The extent of multidimensional poverty is very high, varying from 0.19 in Rohtas to 0.39 in Araria. Further analysis shows that MPI is affected by the access to clean cooking fuel, improved sanitation facilities and education.