FWU Journal of Social Sciences, Winter 2021, Vol. 15, No.4, 47-68 DOI: http://doi.org/10.51709/19951272/Winter-2021/4 The Counting Approach to Multidimensional Poverty: Evidence from South Asia Syed Aziz Rasool, Mohsin Shahzad and Muhammad Ali Khan Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Islamabad This study is about the inspection of the multidimensional poverty level and changes with time. Three sample countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India) are taken from the South Asian Region to measure the depth of multidimensional poverty and inequality among the deprived individuals by using Alkire and Foster (2011) “Dimension Adjusted” or headcount ratio measure, Rippin (2010) Class of Ordinal Poverty measures, and Chakravarty and D’Ambrosio (2006) Class of Poverty measures. These all three approaches are counting-based approaches that are used on ordinal variables. The data of three main dimensions (Education, Health and Standard of Living) which is further divided into ten indicators is used for this study. The secondary data is used, which is extracted from Demographic Health Surveys (DHS). The last three surveys of DHS is used in this study, which was conducted in different period. Results of all three countries are compared and showed that India is having more poverty followed by Bangladesh and Pakistan. Change in inequality component among deprived individuals is recorded almost similar in all three sample countries. The finding of this study shows that all three techniques are providing insightful information about the depth and component inequality among deprived individuals. Keywords: sustainable development goals (SDGs), multidimensional poverty index (MP1), demographic health surveys (DHS), oxford poverty and human development initiative (OPHDI) Multidimensional poverty is a global phenomenon that brings the whole world together at the platform of the United Nations to handle this problem which is the root cause of so many issues of the developing nations. The developing world is facing deprivations in multiple dimensions which includes education, health and living standards, these all aspects are taken under the head of multidimensional poverty as per the latest studies. According to the latest report of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHDI) (2018), it is explored that in 105 developing countries 1.3 billion population is facing multidimensional poverty. The global MPI is estimated for these which shows that 23% (nearly a quarter) population of these countries are left behind in multiple means. The people are facing deprivation in one-third of overlying deprivations in living standards, health and education, which includes lack of clean water for drinking, facilities of sanitation, acceptable nutrition and minimum education level which is primary.The multidimensional poverty profiled scale and detail suggests that Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Dr. Syed Aziz Rasool, Assistant professor, department of social sciences, University: Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology Islamabad, Department, Email: dr.aziz@szabist-isb.edu.pk