A genderbased analysis of multidimensional poverty in rural Odisha

Abstract

This study, the first of its kind, is undertaken with the basic objective of assessing the status and determinants of multidimensional poverty across gender in rural areas of Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha and thus justifies the novelty of the study.365 females and 459 malesacross 338 households in the age group of 18 years and older, selected randomly, from four blocks of Jagatsinghpur district constitute the unit of the study. The Alkire-Foster approach (2011) is used to construct theMPI.Gender-wise analysis reveals higher deprivation of females over males in completed years of schooling, nutrition, health insurance, ownership of the land asset and motor vehicle, autonomy in preventing domestic crime and violence, autonomy in job choice, and autonomy in participating in community-level activities, whereas higher deprivation of male over female is observed in few indicators such as housing, possession of bank account, and sanitation. The study also observed that about 75 per cent of femaleswere recognized as multidimensionally poor with a poverty threshold of 0.3333 against 48 per cent for males. The binomial logistic regression model reveals that age and educationare two important determinants of multidimensional poverty for females, whereas education, social category, and occupation are observed as important determinants of multidimensional poverty for males.Based on the findings, the studysuggests the reorientation of government policies to increase the educational standard along with the generation of more employment opportunities with an emphasis on self-employment activities, both for males and females in the rural areas of the district.