The Counting Approach to Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from South Asia

This study is about the inspection of the multidimensional poverty level and changes with time. Three sample countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India) are taken from the South Asian Region to measure the depth of multidimensional poverty and inequality among the deprived individuals by using Alkire and Foster (2011) “Dimension Adjusted” or headcount ratio measure, Rippin (2010) Class of Ordinal Poverty measures, and Chakravarty and D’Ambrosio (2006) Class of Poverty measures. These all three approaches are counting-based approaches that are used on ordinal variables. The data of three main dimensions (Education, Health and Standard of Living) which is further divided into ten indicators is used for this study. The secondary data is used, which is extracted from Demographic Health Surveys (DHS). The last three surveys of DHS is used in this study, which was conducted in different period. Results of all three countries are compared and showed that India is having more poverty followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan. Change in inequality component among deprived individuals is recorded almost similar in all three sample countries. The finding of this study shows that all three techniques are providing insightful information about the depth and component inequality among deprived individuals.