Question

What is the reason for the declination of poverty in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

Answer 1

Answer:

Inequality is a separate issue and one can turn to that later.  Inequality is relative, poverty is absolute.  In other words, to determine poverty, there is a poverty line and one computes what percentage of population is below the poverty line.  There are data issues, because one needs data on income distributions.  National accounts only give us aggregate measures, not distributions.  Distributions come through NSS (National Sample Survey) and NSS large samples occur at infrequent intervals, an average of once every five years.  The last large NSS samples were in 2004-05 and 2009-10.There are three issues that we can mention and forget about, because they are irrelevant for present purposes.  First, NSS does not collect data on income.  It collects data on consumption expenditure, so what we are talking about is expenditure poverty, not income poverty.  Second, there is an increasing gap between consumption data collected through NSS and aggregate consumption data obtained through national accounts.  Third, there are other dimensions to poverty also and people have worked out multi-dimensional approaches towards measuring poverty.  However, the discourses, including Planning Commission-generated controversies, are about expenditure poverty.  Let’s stick to that.