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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to major learning about the social and economic losses that an external shock to the system can cause. In this paper, we examine some sustainability issues focusing on three key focal points of sustainable development – economic growth, poverty and inequality in the context of climate change. We focus on the inter-relationship between economic growth, investment, labour force participation, energy consumption, poverty and inequality under alternative scenarios using the global framing of Shared Socio-Economic Pathways (SSPs). An econometric model is used for estimating the relationship between GDP and its determinants along with fitting a General Quadratic and/or Beta Lorenz curve using the World Bank's Povcal software for determining the relationship between income, poverty and inequality. Alternative GDP growth paths, redistribution assumptions and poverty lines are used for simulations which reveal the extent of sensitivity of the developmental targets to scenarios up to 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies educational aspirations and grade achievements of teenagers in India, using Structural Equation Modelling with data from the Young Lives Study. The analysis differentiates direct effects of relevant socio-economic and individual characteristics on educational output from indirect effects through aspirations. In this sample, some student characteristics – parents' education, mothers' caste and the student's gender – have no direct effect on educational output, but an indirect effect on educational aspirations going through abilities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and in particular girls, are at a disadvantage at age 12 because they have accumulated lower cognitive abilities. Abilities shape aspirations, which then impact educational output beyond the mere effect of abilities. Girls are at a double disadvantage: besides lower average skills at age 12, they developed lower aspirations than boys of the same characteristics. The economic situation of the household was neither directly nor indirectly related with students' achievements in school. These results help distinguish aspirations as drivers of behaviour from aspirations as correlates of other characteristics, and they have relevant policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing economies like India, China, and various African nations have increasingly been looking at foreign direct investment (FDI) flows as a source of economic growth, raising per capita income, reducing unemployment, and thus finally alleviating poverty. However, the positive impact of such openness remains a matter of debate. Hence, this paper aims to ascertain whether FDI flows play a role in reducing depth as well as intensity of poverty using time series data spanning from 1981-2012 for India. The regression analysis reveals that increased FDI inflows are associated with a lower poverty count, in both the measures that are Headcount Poverty as well as Poverty Gap. In the second model of (OLS), agricultural incomes seem to elevate households out of poverty but fail to bridge the divide between the incomes of the people below poverty line and the average incomes. Thus, the study suggests that bringing more FDI flows is no perfect recipe for alleviating poverty, but it can have a positive impact on poverty reduction, provided that desired mechanisms are in place in the host country to have these positive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the mechanisms through which democratic urban polities produce, maintain and reproduce inequality. It does so by looking at case law from 1990–2007 in New Delhi, where a seemingly relentless series of evictions of poor illegal settlements (colloquially known as bastis) were ordered by the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India in Public Interest Litigations (PILs). While the power of the claims of the “middle class” and the emergence of a new urban political economy are well documented in the analysis of evictions, the specificity of how subaltern urban residents have been displaced from a development imagination remains relatively understudied. Put simply: how have the claims, presence and resistance of a significant proportion of urban residents been managed and even evaded within urban politics? This paper argues that case law on evictions makes visible not only the claims to the city of an insurgent urban elite but also the simultaneous “impoverishment of poverty”, which together create a new calculus for the contestations of urban citizenship in contemporary Delhi. This impoverishment is marked by a reduction in the efficacy of poverty and vulnerability as the basis of claims made by subaltern citizens to the elements of citizenship, i.e. the determination and distribution of rights and needs, access to resources and entitlements as well as a place within narratives of belonging and personhood. Making visible the multiple and particular processes of impoverishment is a critical part of a praxis that seeks to formulate effective resistance and imagine different urban futures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this paper is to examine the inequality and poverty issues of rural households in India from the perspective of a household's monthly per capita consumption expenditure using data on nearly 20,000 households. In examining these issues, the paper first sets out a model of a poverty-inequality trade-off whereby governments could choose the poverty-inequality combination they most preferred. Then the paper proceeds to examine whether there is a 'caste basis' to inequality and poverty in India or whether distributional and deprivation outcomes are 'caste blind' and entirely determined by the attributes of the individual households. Our overarching conclusion is that households' outcomes with respect to their position on the distributional ladder, or with respect to their chances of being poor, are dependent in large measure on their caste. So households from the Scheduled Castes were more likely to be in the lowest quintile of consumption, and were more likely to be poor, than high-caste Hindu households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has the world’s second largest urban population (after China). This paper shows the large disparities within this urban population in health-related indicators. It shows the disparities for child and maternal health, provision for health care and housing conditions between the poorest quartile and the rest of the urban population for India and for several of its most populous states. In the poorest quartile of India’s urban population, only 40 per cent of 12 to 23 month-old children were completely immunized in 2004—2005, 54 per cent of under-five year-olds were stunted, 82 per cent did not have access to piped water at home and 53 per cent were not using a sanitary flush or pit toilet. The paper also shows the large disparities in eight cities between the poorest population (the population in the city that is within the poorest quartile for India’s urban areas), the population living in settlements classified as “slums” and the non-slum population. It also highlights the poor performance in some health-related indicators for the population that is not part of the poorest quartile in several states — for instance in under-five mortality rates, in the proportion of stunted children and in the proportion of households with no piped water supply to their home. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to explore the linkage between poverty and inequality in malnutrition through decomposition analysis using data from the National Family Health Survey-3 (NFHS-3) conducted in 2005-2006. Association between inequality in malnutrition and income inequality and poverty is observed at the state level. Inequality is analysed using the concentration index, which is further decomposed to identify the factors associated with inequality in malnutrition. Poverty, in terms of the wealth index, has considerable impact on average rates of malnutrition, indicating a disproportional burden of malnutrition on the poor. At the macro-economic level, overall socio-economic inequality correlates moderately with the inequality in malnutrition. On decomposition, poverty alone explains more than half of the inequality in malnutrition, which justifies the poverty-nutrition inequality linkage. The paper highlights the influence of poverty in worsening malnutrition, leading to unequal nutritional outcomes among children in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it is commonly believed that higher exports results in higher GDP, theoretically, the impact of international trade on poverty reduction is ambiguous. To resolve this ambiguity, this paper aims to examine the impact of India's exports intensity on poverty outcomes. With poverty as a focal point, the international trade in India is examined together with a wide range of macro variables in order to trace down the poverty-reducing impact of trade. Using a case study approach, time series data on India is taken for the postglobalization period of 1990-2012. The key dependent variable is poverty, which is measured as poverty headcount as wells as poverty gap. The model is regressed using classical Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) as well as system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimator in order to control endogeneity and reverse causality in the model. The results using basic OLS regression state that poverty reduces as exports increases. When the model is tested using the GMM approach, the empirical results do not show any significant relationship between poverty and exports for the basic model. However, when interaction terms of control variables are brought in the model, the results change. The results thus suggest that globalized trade of goods may be an engine for poverty reduction in India, when it is complemented with the right domestic policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to assess India's performance in generating the required quantity and quality of employment for its growing population since independence in 1947. But the exercise is set in a longer period that covers India's population growth since the turn of the twentieth century (1901) in relation to its ability to generate employment. The half-a-century preceding independence, despite a slow population growth, was a disaster in generating employment and any signs of structural change. Detailed analysis of the issue since independence shows that there was indeed a demographic burden more than the world average as well as its comparator Asian countries such as China and Indonesia. While employment generation with reference to growth—employment elasticity—was quite impressive during the first four decades of independence, it almost collapsed ever since the adoption of neoliberal economic reforms in 1991, thus entering a phase of 'jobless growth', a phenomenon that is shared by China in a more vigorous form. This has led to what may be called an exclusion of working age people from not just employment but from labour force indicating the emergence of 'discouraged workers' in a larger set that we called underutilized labour. But what about those who are included in the workforce? Does it ensure an escape from poverty for those at the bottom? Our estimates show that the pace of reduction in the incidence of poverty is so slow that a significant share of households is still below the international definition of extreme poverty. We attribute this to the quality of employment characterized by a high incidence of informal sector employment as well as low wages measured by the share of workers not receiving a recommended subsistence wage. The absence of any kind of social security to an overwhelming share of workers adds to this situation of absolute poverty. Finally we examine the question of poverty from the point of manifold inequalities by dividing the households in the economy in terms of their employment, educational, rural–urban, and social group statuses for estimating predicted probability of being poor. The results bring into sharp focus the huge variation in predicted probability that shows households with low education, disadvantaged social group status, casual nature of employment, and living in rural areas at the bottom end of the scale. These results bring out the imperative for creating more employment with better quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among countries with comparable levels of income, India has one of the more progressive disability policy frameworks. However, people with disabilities in India are still subject to multiple disadvantages. This paper focuses on state-level variations in outcomes for people with disabilities to provide an explanation for the contrast between the liberal laws on paper and the challenges faced by people with disabilities in practice. Using average monthly per-capita expenditure as an indicator of economic well-being, instrumental-variable Wald estimator results indicate that households with members with disabilities have expenditures that are 14% lower compared with households with able members. This effect is most pronounced among families with male adults and children with disabilities, and in states that are relatively poor, relatively more urban, those that experience extremes in annual rainfall and temperature, and those that have low to medium levels of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender disparity in education is the disparity or inequality in education between females and males. Several studies upon the gender inequality in education show that it lays as an obstacle in the achievement of several development goals. Using secondary data, the paper aims to calculate Gender Equality in Education Index (GEEI) for India, find out the extent of gender inequality in education, find out the age groups in which gender inequality in education is present and find out the reasons of variation in gender inequality in education across India. To examine the extent of gender inequality in education across Indian, Gender Parity Index (GPI) with respect to literacy rate (LR) since 1991 and Education for all Development Index (EDI) for the Indian states or union territories for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 have been calculated. To find out the age groups in which gender inequality in education is present, Gender Gap (GG) of Never Attended (NA) has been calculated for the Indian states or union territories for 2011 and to find out the reasons of variation in gender inequality in education across India, regression analysis has been done using cross section data on literacy rate, poverty, percentage of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST), population size and average budgeted government expenditure on education for 2011. The study shows that gender inequality in education where females lag behind than males still exist in all the states or union territories of India and in the age groups 30-34, 35-59 and 60+, in all the states or union territories of India percentage of female never attended (NA) has remained higher than percentage of male NA. The regression analysis shows that per capita net state domestic product (PCNSDP) have a significant positive impact on GPI of literacy rate. The regression analysis also shows that amongst all the religions in India, only percentages of Christians and all other persuasions population have a significant positive and negative impact respectively on GPI of literacy rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately half of all slums(1) in India are not recognized by the government. Lack of government recognition, also referred to as “non-notified status” in the Indian context, may create entrenched barriers to legal rights and basic services such as water, sanitation and security of tenure. In this paper, we explore the relationship between non-notified status and health outcomes in Kaula Bandar, a slum in Mumbai, India. We illustrate this relationship using the findings of a four-year long series of studies in the community. By comparing Kaula Bandar’s statistics with those from other Mumbai slums captured by India’s National Family Health Survey–3, we show that Kaula Bandar has relative deficiencies in several health and social outcomes, including educational status, child health and adult nutrition. We then provide an explanatory framework for the role that Kaula Bandar’s non-notified status may play in generating poor health outcomes, by discussing the health consequences of the absence of basic services. We also highlight the criminalization by the government of activities necessary for fulfilling access to fundamental needs such as water, toilets and shelter. We argue that the policy vacuum surrounding non-notified slums such as Kaula Bandar results in governance failures that lead to poor health outcomes. Our findings highlight the need for cities in India and other developing countries to establish and fulfill minimum humanitarian standards in non-notified slums for the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, solid waste removal, electricity and education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Summary Compared to the extensive literature on measurement of poverty, the question of how the poor are distributed regionally has received less attention. This paper fills the gap in the literature by providing a conceptual framework to measure inequality in the distribution of the poor. A poverty segregation curve is used to compare a region’s share of the poor population with its share in the overall population. A unique contribution of the paper is formulating a generalized version of the poverty segregation curve. Unlike the segregation curve, the generalized segregation curve also takes average poverty rates into account while ranking distributions. Thus the generalized segregation curve may rank a distribution with substantially lower poverty rates above a distribution with higher poverty rates, when differences between their segregation curves are relatively small. The segregation curves are used to analyze changes in the distribution of the poor in India since the economic reforms in the early 1990s. Poverty rates and shares among all states, territories, and districts in India are estimated using data from the National Sample Survey Organization in 1994, 2004, and 2010. In the decades following the reforms India witnessed high growth rates and declining poverty rates. Despite the reduction in poverty, our analysis is the first to reveal that there was a significant rise in segregation of the poor over time. Some states had disproportionately high share of the poor compared to their share in the total population. Within states, the extent of segregation was lower among some of the poorest states and higher in less poor states. The generalized segregation curves show that the substantial decline in poverty rates since the reforms was not adequate to compensate the rise in segregation of the poor. Increase in segregation was also evident when the poor are identified as those who lacked education, health, and access to basic services. Reducing the segregation of the poor is important if India is to attain regionally balanced economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite a commendable rise in the number of women seeking delivery care at public health institutions in South India, it is unclear if the benefit accrues to wealthier or poorer socio-economic groups. The study's aim was to investigate at how the public subsidy is distributed among Indian women who give birth in public hospitals in the southern regions. Methods: Data from the Indian Demographic Health Survey's fifth wave (NFHS-5, 2019–21) was used in this study. A total of 22, 403 were institutional deliveries across all the southern states of India were included. Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on childbirth in health institutions was the outcome variable. We used summary statistics, Benefits Incidence Analysis (BIA), concentration index (CI), and concentration curve (CC) were used. Results: Most women in the lowest, poorest, and medium quintiles of wealth opted to give birth in public facilities. In contrast, about 69% of mothers belonging to highest quintile gave birth in private health institutions. The magnitude of CI and CC of institutional delivery indicates that public sector usage was concentrated among poorer quintiles [CIX: − 0.178; SE: 0.005; p < 0.001] and private sector usage was concentrated among wealthier quintiles [CIX: 0.239; SE: 0.006; p < 0.001]. Benefit incidence analyses suggest that middle quintile of women received the maximum public subsidy in primary health centres (33.23%), followed by richer quintile (25.62%), and poorer wealth quintiles (24.84%). These pattern in the secondary health centres was similar. Conclusion: Poorer groups utilize the public sector for institutional delivery in greater proportions than the private sector. Middle quintiles seem to benefit the most from public subsidy in terms of the median cost of service and non-payment. Greater efforts must be made to understand how and why these groups are being left behind and what policy measures can enhance their inclusion and financial risk protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using three quinquennial rounds of consumption expenditure data over two decades (1993-2012), this paper estimates the extent of money metric poverty and inequality in regions of India. Regions are made comparable, and the poverty head count ratio and the poverty gap ratio for 81 regions are derived using the state specific poverty lines as recommended by the Planning Commission of India. The gini index, rich-poor ratio and regression analyses are used to understand the extent of economic inequality in regions of India. Results indicate that though the extent of poverty has declined, economic inequality has increased in regions of India. During 1993-2012, the poverty head count ratio had decreased in 70 regions, increased in seven regions and remained similar in four regions of India. The southern regions of Odisha and southern regions of Chhattisgarh are reeling under high persistent poverty. The spread in poverty head count ratio among regions has increased from 0.38 in 1993-1994 to 0.64 in 2011-2012 confirming divergence in regional poverty in India. The pattern is similar with respect to poverty gap ratio. Regions of Tripura and Sikkim had highest improvements in poverty level. On contrast to poverty estimates, the gini index has decreased in 20 regions and increased in 61 regions. Likewise, 57 regions have recorded increase in rich-poor ratio. The rich-poor ratio was higher in developed regions and lower in less developed regions. Based on these findings, we suggest that regions with persistently high poverty be accorded priority in poverty alleviation program and explore the factors leading to increasing economic inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine the growth performance and its impact on inequality and poverty in China and India. The recent upsurge in growth rates in China and India is seen widely as the 'success' story of globalization. It is also claimed that these developments will make a significant impact on the reduction of global inequalities and poverty. Although a number of scholars have analysed the recent economic performance of China and India, these studies, however, have not taken into account the past policies and their impact on current performance. We find there is a gap in the current discussion, which overlooks historical and economic factors on the recent performance. This article critically assesses the claimed fall in global poverty due to mainly the rise of China and India in recent years. The article questions the 'pro-globalization' argument, which suggests that there is a link between 'market liberal' free market policies and falling poverty. It is argued instead that the evidence concerning poverty reduction is ambiguous, and it is not that the most successful economies have adopted pro-globalization policies. Studying the developmental changes taking place in these two countries is important because they together account for 37.5% of the global population. These populous neighbours, regarded as symbols of poverty and failure until two decades ago, contain large numbers of people living below the officially defined poverty line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the economic determinants of female-owned proprietorships for 52 metro cities in India. The National Sample Survey (NSS) unit-level data are used for the analysis. The descriptive results show that women's proprietorship is much lower than its counterpart. The Probit regression results at the individual level show that women entrepreneurs do not have a bank account or computer but use the internet, are not registered under any act or authority, and do not expand considerably. They operate within household premises with a limited number of months and duration of a day, undertaking mainly contract basis. They also face several problems that hinder their activities. City-level factors such as work participation rate, consumption expenditure, higher levels of general and technical degrees, and vocational training are essential. The likelihood of becoming a female entrepreneur is negatively impacted by the two agglomeration variables of population size and participation in mixed activity. City-level poverty and inequality also adversely affect it. State-level Human Development Index, Gender Development Index, and Gender Inequality Index are also significant. Finally, we propose important policies to enable the city environment to improve women's entrepreneurship activities for higher and sustainable economic development. • Female-owned entrepreneurship (FOE) is essential for sustainable and inclusive economic growth in developing countries. • The agglomeration size, unequal economic distribution, and less female-friendly society discourage becoming FOE. • Knowledge spillovers, labour pooling, availability of public services, and infrastructure encourage FOE. • Cities need to increase investment, employment, level of education, and delivery of public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty and unemployment are relatively higher among the Scheduled Casts (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) than that in other communities in India, especially in rural areas. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, was introduced in India to create employment opportunities for the rural people. The present study measures the performance of the states in spreading the benefits of the scheme among the SCs and the STs of the rural areas. Ranks have been assigned to the states based on their performance as measured by the four selected parameters. Inequality among the states in carrying out the scheme has also been measured. Further, correlations between performance scores of the states and SC/ST poverty rates of the states, and performance scores of the states and SC/ ST literacy rates of the states have been computed, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This introductory essay reviews the scholarship on the politics of social policy, and shows the contribution of the special issue to explaining expanded welfare commitments in Brazil, China, India and South Africa in the twenty-first century. Much literature on welfare expansion in lower- and middle-income contexts views it primarily as a policy corrective to the economic dislocations produced by global economic integration. This special issue focuses on the political factors that are critical to understanding the shape social policies have taken and their effectiveness in ameliorating poverty and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Economic growth is considered to be the most important factor for achieving a lower level of poverty, but burgeoning inequality could affect poverty reduction adversely. This article decomposes the change in both rural and urban poverty into what can be termed as 'growth effect' and 'distribution effect' for twenty major Indian states during India's highest growth episode (2004–2011). It further examines the pro-poorness of the growth in these states. One of our key findings is that while income growth plays a key role in rural poverty reduction, rising inequality appears to be a major hindrance with respect to urban poverty. Our investigation also suggests that higher growth is not necessarily pro-poor. If the growth process itself is iniquitous, it might reduce the poverty elasticity of income and, in turn, result in slower poverty reduction despite high growth. This being specifically relevant for urban India and with urban poverty increasingly becoming a serious concern, economic policymakers should adopt a policy paradigm ensuring a more inclusive urban growth instead of considering growth as a panacea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the evolution of consumption‐poverty measures for post‐independence India, including 20 years since extensive economic reforms began in 1991. Progress against poverty was negligible until the mid‐1970s, after which a downward trend in poverty measures emerged. The pace of poverty reduction accelerated in the post‐reform period, despite rising inequality amidst faster growth. A key finding is that the relationship to the pattern of growth changed greatly, suggesting stronger intersectoral linkages, with urban consumption growth benefiting both the rural and urban poor. In contrast to the pre‐reform period, growth in primary, secondary and tertiary sector outputs yielded similar impacts on poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the understanding of decomposing poverty change, the growth effect of mean income is replaced with the growth effect of total income and the impact of change in total population. These two, along with changes in inequality, form the three broader effects that can be computed in multiple ways depending upon the base period and the sequence of calculation. Changing the base does not alter the broader effects while specific attributions within each effect get interchanged. For a given base, there will be six possible sequences and we take an average of these to compute the three broad effects. Finally, poverty change on account of the three broad effects comprising growth of total income, change in inequality, and change in total population are shown as part of the within-group effect while change in population shares, which is different from change in total population, is a between-group effect. We provide empirical illustrations with data from India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

InRed Tape, I do not use the term “arbitrary” in opposition to “systematic”, as is alleged by Harriss and Jeffrey. Arbitrariness accompanies systematic forms of discrimination, and is the result of both, the indifference to outcomes and to the chaotic style of functioning of Indian bureaucracies. Interpreting structural violence, or explaining injustice, requires understanding what the state means to different people. The chief argument that poverty is a form of violence, and represents the killing of the poor, underlines the injustice that results from treating poverty as a biopolitical fact. I employ a notion of politics that is not restricted to parties and mobilization, but which saturates all relations of inequality. Despite voicing dissatisfaction with the analysis presented inRed Tape, Harriss and Jeffrey fail to forward an adequate and coherent alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite accelerated growth there is pervasive hunger, child undernutrition and mortality in India. Our analysis focuses on their determinants. Raising living standards alone will not reduce hunger and undernutrition. Reduction of rural/urban disparities, income inequality, consumer price stabilization, and mothers’ literacy all have roles of varying importance in different nutrition indicators. Somewhat surprisingly, public distribution system (PDS) do not have a significant effect on any of them. Generally, child undernutrition and mortality rise with poverty. Our analysis confirms that media exposure triggers public action, and helps avert child undernutrition and mortality. Drastic reduction of economic inequality is in fact key to averting child mortality, conditional upon a drastic reordering of social and economic arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The commonly used poverty indices measure the overall level of poverty in a society but fail to capture the differential intensity of poverty across different socioeconomic groups. This article proposes a new measure, Inequality of Poverty Index (similar to dissimilarity index in the literature on inequality of opportunity) that captures inequality in distribution of poverty across different subgroups. It can be used to determine the major socioeconomic factors/characteristics/circumstances causing between-group disparity in poverty and effect of a specific factor on poverty relative to other factors and time. The article also provides an application of the index and potential policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which India's poor have benefited from the country's economic growth has long been debated. A new series of consumption-based poverty measures spanning 50 years, including a 15-year period after economic reforms began in earnest in the early 1990s, is used to examine that issue. Growth has tended to reduce poverty, including in the postreform period. There is no robust evidence of more or less poverty responsiveness to growth since the reforms began, although there are signs of rising inequality. The impact of growth is higher when using poverty measures that reflect distribution below the poverty line and when using growth rates calculated from household surveys rather than national accounts. The urban-rural pattern of growth matters for the pace of poverty reduction. However, in marked contrast to the period before the reforms, urban economic growth in the period after the reforms has brought significant gains to the rural poor as well as the urban poor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article reports on mean consumption, poverty (all three FGT measures) and inequality during 2004 for rural India using National Sample Survey (NSS) data for the 60th Round. Mean consumption at the national level is much higher than the poverty line. However, the Gini coefficient is higher than in recent earlier rounds. The headcount ratio is 22.9 per cent. Mean consumption, all three measures of poverty and the Gini coefficient are computed at the level of 20 states and 63 agro-climatic zones in these 20 states. It is surmised that despite impressive growth rates deprivation is pervasive, pockets of severe poverty persist, and inequality is rampant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We explored the causes and circumstances of violent behaviour among a group of child labourers in the Indian unorganized sectors. From 14 categories of occupations, a total of 1,400 child labourers were interviewed in both urban and rural areas. The average family size of these mostly illiterate child labourers is seven, and average family income is 3,200 INR per month. In the short term child labourers become violent, aggressive, and criminal, following a pyramid of violent behaviour, including socio-economic pressure, cultural deviance, and psychological pressure. When considering family history it seems that the problem is part of a vicious cycle of violence, which persists through generations and evolves with financial crisis, early marriage, and violence in the family and workplace. Our study demonstrates that the most vulnerable groups of child labourers belong to the following workplaces: dhabas, food stalls, rail/bus stations, rail-floor cleaning, and rag picking. Giving high priority to capacity building within the community, including support for locally-generated solutions, is warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]