Multidimensional Deprivation Spectrum: A Step Forward from Alkire–Foster Methodology Taseer Salahuddin 1 Alia Ahmed 2 Abstract Income-based poverty and multidimensional poverty are two major paradigms currently in use to define and measure poverty. Both these paradigms, however, take individuals as units of analysis and classify them on the basis of certain poverty lines and cut-offs as poor and non-poor. Social stigma and labelling theory suggest that the label of poverty negatively impacts the self-esteem of people or con- tributes to the tendencies of paternalistic dependency among them. This article suggests that poverty should be measured using dimensions of life as units of analysis. In this direction, it offers a variant of the Alkire and Foster (Counting and multidimensional poverty measures, OPHI Working Paper No. 7, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, 2007) multidimensional poverty index in the form of a multidimensional deprivation spectrum. Along with using different dimensions as units of analysis, the current article presents a whole spectrum of indices built to measure inequality for a more nuanced picture. Keywords Poverty measurement, multidimensional deprivation, poverty alleviation Introduction Since the advent of the construct of poverty it has been defined in terms of the lack of income (Chambers, 2006). This paradigm is based on the rationality assumption which argues for every human to be rational and use his income for taking care of his needs himself. However, Sen (1985) has found contrary evidence from his research on human life. Over time, the multidimensional nature of poverty was realized (Thorbecke, 2005). Income is a means to an end and not an end in itself, therefore for measuring poverty the direct measurement of all dimensions of human life such as education, health shelter, living standard, water and sanitation among others should be taken into consideration. Many efforts have been Article Indian Journal of Human Development 13(1) 1–12, 2019 © 2019 Institute for Human Development Reprints and permissions: in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india DOI: 10.1177/0973703019834742 journals.sagepub.com/home/jhd 1 National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan. 2 Business School of National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan. Corresponding author: Taseer Salahuddin, National College of Business Administration and Economics, Lahore, Pakistan. E-mail: salahuddin.taseer@gmail.com