Estimates of Poverty and Inequality in the Districts of India, 2011–2012

Abstract

Abstract Though the Census of India and large-scale demographic surveys have bridged the data gap on key demographic and health parameters, estimates on poverty and inequality remain deficient for the districts of India. The estimates on poverty and inequality indices across the states of India conceal large variations among districts. We use an innovative approach to provide consumption-based estimates of poverty and inequality indices in the districts of India by pooling the 66th and 68th rounds of consumption expenditure carried out by the National Sample Survey. The new official poverty line of 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 as recommended by the Rangarajan Committee and adopted by the Government of India is used in the estimation of poverty. A set of poverty and inequality indices, the poverty head count ratio, poverty gap square, the Gini index, Theil index and mean log deviation (MLD) are used to estimate poverty and inequality indices for 623 of the 640 districts in India. Estimates of poverty are obtained by pooling the estimates of 2009-10 and 2011-12. Results suggest wide variations in the level, depth and incidence of poverty among the districts of India irrespective of size, stage and governance in the states. The pattern of inequality is different from that of poverty; it is higher in districts with a higher level of development. Estimates of poverty are consistently correlated with wealth index, agricultural labour and female literacy. Among various factors, the fertility level, wealth index and the proportion of agricultural worker are significant predictors of poverty. Based on the findings, we suggest to increase the sample size to estimate consumption poverty in every alternate quinquennial survey and undertake a special round of survey in multidimensional poverty. Districts ranked low in poverty head count ratio should be accorded high priority in planning and program implementation.