Has Poverty Declined since Economic Reforms? Statistical Data Analysis

Recent estimates of absolute poverty in rural and urban India, covering the period up to 1997, are presented. The estimates present a mixed picture of a moderate decline in urban poverty rates, but relatively unchanging levels of rural poverty during the 1990s, which seems largely attributable to differential growth in average living standards in the two sectors. However, the unresolved and increasing discrepancy between the national accounts and survey-based estimates of consumption growth raises doubts about how egalitarian the growth process has been over this decade.