Poverty in India/ V. M. Dandekar and Nilkantha Rath

1. Situation at the beginning of the sixties -- 2. Performance of the economy during the past decade -- 3. Perspective for the coming decade -- 4. Policies for equitable distribution -- 5. Land policy -- 6. Labour-intensive technology -- 7. Right to gainful work -- 8. Winder issues

This is about poverty in rural India, the methods of its measurement and its dimensions during the last three decades. Section I traces the beginnings of this enquiry in 1970-71. Section II discusses the objections raised to the calorie based measurement of the poverty line. Section III traces and critically examines the methods of measurement subsequently followed, over space and time. Section IV presents the dimensions of rural poverty in India and its major states during the last three decades. Section V briefly examines the causes of the rising incidence of poverty and the policy measures to contain it.