The Multidimensional Poverty Index prepared by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) revealed marked inequalities among ethnic groups within the same country.

For example, in Bolivia, indigenous communities make up about 44 percent of the population, but account for 75 percent of the multidimensionally poor.

A similar situation occurs in India, where five out of six multidimensionally poor people belong to the known lower tribes or castes, according to the UNDP report.

The study, which is based on a Multidimensional Poverty Index, measures parameters such as lack of health, insufficient education or low living standards, and shows how such deprivations can vary greatly among different ethnic groups within a nation.

In addition, the report includes a section on gender and indicates that nearly two-thirds of the world’s multidimensional poor, some 836 million people, live in households in which no woman or girl has completed at least six years of schooling.

Multidimensional poverty affects 1.3 billion people and nearly half of them, some 644 million, are under 18 years old.

Around 85 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa (556 million) or South Asia (532 million).

That UNDP Index examines the level and composition of multidimensional poverty in 109 countries, where 5.9 billion people live.

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