Question

How do you examine democracy on the basis of Reduction of inequality and poverty?

Answer 1

Democracy as per 2010 data, is slightly behind dictatorships in reduction of poverty and inequality whereas it assures dignity of each citizen,
considering size of population, difference in priorities and complex yet legitimate govt. procedures.

Answer 2

    One should collect data related to poverty and inequality.  This sort of data collection was done by the Mandal commission nearly twenty years ago.

    Social equality or inequality indicators need to be formulated. Some indicators could be the equality of women and men in a family, equality of people in a sect or community and equality of people to perform certain jobs or to study certain courses.  Equality to live in an area, to acquire property or to do business or to command an organization are some more indicators.

   Equality in access to food, water, and other resources could be collected too.  Similarly, indicators of poverty like purchasing capability, value of property held by the person, social status, future growth opportunities, family income, earnings etc. For purchasing power, one should verify the amount of money that can purchase the basic food items or a healthy and clean meals.

   So these measures could be used to collect data of people in various areas. Then over years the democratic process influences the lives of people of all communities.  The indicators could be collected periodically. Then the improvement in the indices could be verified.