The book examines India’s experience with poverty reduction in  a period of rapid economic growth. Marshalling evidence from multiple  sources of survey data and drawing on new methods, the book asks how  India’s structural transformation - from rural to urban, and from  agriculture to nonfarm sectors - is impacting poverty.    Our analysis suggests that since the early 1990s, urban growth has  emerged as a much more important driver of poverty reduction than in  the past. We focus in particular on the role of small and medium size  conurbations in India, both as the urban sub-sector in which urban  poverty is overwhelmingly concentrated, and as a sub-sector that could  potentially stimulate rural-based poverty reduction. Second, in rural  areas, we focus on the nature of intersectoral transformation out of  agriculture into the nonfarm economy. Stagnation in agriculture has  been accompanied by dynamism in the nonfarm sector, but there is much  debate about whether the growth seen has been a symptom of agrarian  distress or a source of poverty reduction.    Finally, alongside the accelerating economic growth and the highly  visible transformation that is occurring in India’s major cities,  inequality is on the rise. This is raising concern that economic growth  in India has by-passed significant segments of the population. The  third theme on social exclusion asks if, despite the dramatic growth,  historically grounded inequalities along lines of caste, tribe and  gender have persisted.    This book would be of interest for policymakers, researchers,  non-governmental organizations, and international agencies—from  India and abroad--who wish to know more about India’s experience  of the last two decades in reducing poverty.

Perspectives on Poverty in India: Stylized Facts from Survey Data PDF

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