Geography of Poverty and Social Deprivation in India: A Regional Analysis

Poverty in India is marked not only by inadequate income or consumption but also by spatially concentrated deficits in health, education, housing, sanitation, nutrition and access to basic services. This paper examines the geography of poverty and social deprivation in India through a regional and multidimensional perspective. It seeks to identify the principal spatial concentrations of deprivation, assess changes over time, examine rural–urban and social-group inequalities, and consider the structural processes sustaining regional disadvantage. The study adopts a descriptive, analytical and comparative research design based entirely on secondary data. Its principal sources are NITI Aayog’s National Multidimensional Poverty Index: A Progress Review 2023, based on NFHS-4 (2015–16) and NFHS-5 (2019–21), the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation’s Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023–24, the World Bank’s 2025 poverty estimates, and recent UNDP multidimensional-poverty evidence. The analysis demonstrates a substantial national decline in multidimensional poverty, but also a persistent geography of deprivation. Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh recorded particularly high multidimensional-poverty incidence in 2019–21, whereas Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu occupied the opposite end of the distribution. Rural deprivation remains significantly greater than urban deprivation, while consumption expenditure continues to vary systematically across social groups. The paper argues that India’s poverty geography reflects the interaction of economic structure, social stratification, uneven human-development achievements, infrastructure, urbanisation and state capacity. Consequently, poverty reduction requires spatially differentiated policies rather than uniform national interventions.