Does Women’s Empowerment Influence Multidimensional Poverty? Empirical Insight from Rural Odisha of India

Abstract

The prominent role played by women’s empowerment and multidimensional poverty reduction in the development process is justified by including Goal-1 and Goal-5 under the 2030 agenda of UNDP’s Sustainable Development Goals. This study examines the nexus between women’s empowerment and multidimensional poverty in rural areas of the Jagatsinghpur district of Odisha. The Alkire-Foster method is used to construct Women Empowerment Index and Multidimensional Poverty Index. Education, health, economic, and standard of living dimensions construct MPI and economic, social, political, and domestic empowerment dimensions for WEI. This study observed that more than two-thirds of women are deprived of asset ownership and employment, and more than half of nutrition, access to improved sanitation, and clean energy for cooking. The results of the OLS model revealed the positive impact of women’s empowerment with occupation, age, and education in reducing multidimensional poverty. Based on the findings, the study envisages appropriate policy intervention in enhancing the educational level and generation of self-employment opportunities in empowering women and reducing multidimensional poverty.