23.12.2014 Views

Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

Sri Lanka Human Development Report 2012.pdf

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Figure T.2: Intensity of Poverty and Multidimensional Poverty<br />

Source: Computations by the report team of the Institute of Policy Studies of <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong><br />

usingDepartment of Census and Statistics of <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong> 2007b.<br />

The intensity of poverty (A) recalled reflects the proportion of<br />

the weighted components of indicators (d), in which, on average,<br />

poor people are deprived. The calculation of (A)was done only<br />

for those households identified as multidimensionally poor.<br />

For <strong>Sri</strong> <strong>Lanka</strong>, the intensity of poverty was 0.3966, perDHS<br />

2006/07 (Figure T.2 and Table A4). This indicates that an<br />

average multidimensionally poor person suffers 39.7 percent<br />

of the deprivations on the weighted indicators. The intensity<br />

of poverty among districts varied very narrowly, ranging from<br />

0.3695, or 37 percent, for Colombo District,to 0.4180, or 41.8<br />

percent, for Batticaloa District. In short, multidimensionally<br />

poor persons throughout the country face more or less the same<br />

intensity of deprivations.<br />

The percentage contributions of each dimension/indicator to<br />

multidimensional poverty reveal four distinct types of deprivations<br />

at the national level(Table T.5). Per DHS 2006/07, two health<br />

indicators are responsible for the highest contribution:‘at least<br />

one person in the household is malnourished’accounts for 30<br />

percent, and ‘at least one child in the household has died’accounts<br />

for 10.8 percent of deprivations. Two other high contributors<br />

are under living conditions: ‘household has no electricity’at 10.4<br />

percent,and ‘household uses firewood for cooking but does not<br />

have a separate kitchen’at 10.0 percent of the contribution.<br />

DHS2006/07 showed that more than one-fifth of children<br />

under five years of age are underweight. The situation on estatesis<br />

especially serious; the rate is as high as 30 percent. Although <strong>Sri</strong><br />

<strong>Lanka</strong> managed to bring down itsinfant mortality rate to 8.5 per<br />

1,000 live births in 2007, and the under-fivemortality rate to<br />

13.5 per 1,000 live births in 2003, the MPI contribution from<br />

the deaths of children in poor households is still high. Nutrition<br />

and child mortality in poorer households should be a major<br />

concern for policy makers and health planners.<br />

174<br />

sri lanka <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> report 2012

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!