Poverty in India, Rural and Urban Poverty, An Over View

Abstract

Poverty remains a challenge for India; poverty eradication is an important goal of economic policy. Therefore, the measurement of poverty must be acceptable because it has important political implications. This article presents the methodology followed by the expert group (Rangarajan) and explains some of the issues that have been raised since the publication of the report. In addition to methodology, some of the topics covered in the article are: calorie consumption, multidimensional poverty, urban poverty, NAS (National Accounts Statistics)-NSS (National Sample Survey) public spending and poverty, NSS and SECC (Socio-Economic Caste Census and Poverty the method approved by the new poor group is based on sound principles. As the group explained, this measure is not considered an appropriate basis for determining eligibility for various programs. But a proper anti-poverty measure is useful to get an overall picture of a country's progress. This represents the absolute minimum. It is clear that the goal of policy must be not only to reduce the number of people below this threshold, but also to ensure that people in general have a much higher standard of living. Policymakers must pursue a two-pronged strategy: allowing the economy to grow rapidly and attacking poverty directly with poverty programs.