India among five countries with largest number of people living in poverty: UN report
United Nations, Oct 18: India is among the five countries globally with the largest number of people living in poverty, according to the UN report that said 1.1 billion people, over half of them minors, live in acute poverty worldwide.
The latest update of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was released on Thursday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) based at the University of Oxford.
It said that 1.1 billion people live in acute poverty worldwide, with 40 per cent living in countries experiencing war, fragility and/or low peacefulness, according to at least one of the three widely used datasets of conflict settings.
India has 234 million people living in poverty, which is medium Human Development Index, placing the country among five globally with the largest number of people living in poverty.
“The other four countries are Pakistan (93 million), Ethiopia (86 million), Nigeria (74 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (66 million), all low HDI,” it said.
Together, these five countries account for nearly half (48.1 per cent) of the 1.1 billion poor people,” it said.
The report added that a “staggering" 455 million of the world’s poor live in countries exposed to violent conflict, hindering and even reversing hard-won progress to reduce poverty.
“Conflicts have intensified and multiplied in recent years, reaching new highs in casualties, displacing record millions of people, and causing widespread disruption to lives and livelihoods,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.
“Our new research shows that of the 1.1 billion people living in multidimensional poverty, almost half a billion live in countries exposed to violent conflict.
“We must accelerate action to support them. We need resources and access for specialized development and early recovery interventions to help break the cycle of poverty and crisis.”
The report notes that over half of the 1.1 billion poor people are children under the age of 18 (584 million). Globally, 27.9 per cent of children live in poverty, compared with 13.5 per cent of adults.
Large proportions of the 1.1 billion poor people lack adequate sanitation (828 million), housing (886 million) or cooking fuel (998 million). Well over half of the 1.1 billion poor people live with a person who is undernourished in their household (637 million).
In South Asia 272 million poor people live in households with at least one undernourished person, and in Sub- Saharan Africa 256 million do, it said.
About 83.7 per cent of poor people live in rural areas. Across all world regions people in rural areas are poorer than people in urban areas. Overall, 28.0 per cent of the global rural population are poor, compared with 6.6 per cent of the urban population.
Of the 1.1 billion poor people, 218 million (19.0 per cent) live in war-affected countries. Nearly 40 per cent of poor people (455 million) live in countries experiencing war, fragility and/or low peacefulness, according to at least one of three widely used definitions, the report said.
While national rates vary, overall, in countries affected by war, the incidence of poverty is 34.8 per cent, much higher than the 10.9 per cent in countries not affected by war or minor conflicts.
Multidimensional poverty is also more than twice as high in fragile and conflict-affected and low-peacefulness countries, it said.
The year’s report features original statistical research on multidimensional poverty for 112 countries and 6.3 billion people, as well as fine-grained analysis of the relationship between conflict and poverty, it added.
The UN noted that due to lack of data, the global MPI is measured over a 10-year period (2012-2023) to create a comparable index of global levels and trends.
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Bondi Beach shooting suspect conducted firearms training with his father, Australian police say
Melbourne (AP): A man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney's Bondi Beach conducted firearms training in an area of New South Wales state outside of Sydney with his father, Australian police documents released on Monday allege.
The men recorded a video about their justification for the meticulously planned attack, according to a police statement of facts that was made public following Naveed Akram's video court appearance Monday from a Sydney hospital where he has been treated for an abdominal injury.
Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
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The New South Wales state government confirmed Naveed Akram was transferred on Monday from a hospital to a prison. Neither facility was identified by authorities.
The statement alleges the 24-year-old and his father began their attack by throwing four improvised explosive devices toward a crowd celebrating an annual Jewish event at Bondi Beach, but the devices failed to explode.
Police described the devices as three aluminium pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing an explosive, black powder and steel ball bearings. None detonated, but police described them as “viable” IEDs.
Authorities have charged Akram with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.
The antisemitic attack at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah celebration was Australia's worst mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania state in 1996.
The New South Wales government introduced draft laws to Parliament on Monday that Premier Chris Minns said would become the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms license. That would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa.
Sajid Akram also legally owned six rifles and shotguns. A new legal limit for recreational shooters would be a maximum of four guns.
Police said a video found on Naveed Akram's phone shows him with his father "reciting their political and religious views and appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack.”
The men are seen in the video “condemning the acts of Zionists” while they also “adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to the Islamic State,” police said.
Video shot in October shows them “firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner” on grassland surrounded by trees, police said.
“There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months,” police allege.
