Poverty Dynamics in Rural India: An Asset-Based Approach

To make directed policy for different categories of identified rural poor in India, the current focus on static income poverty as a measure is insufficient. This article uses the asset-based approach to quantify poverty dynamics for the years 1992, 1998 and 2005, for the entire country and for various states. We find that at all India level 35 per cent of the rural households are asset poor, of which 22 per cent are chronically poor and 13 per cent are transient poor. An additional 9 per cent of rural non-poor households live under the threat of poverty. This article also analyses trends in asset poverty in various states, with policy recommendations based on their asset poverty status.JEL Classification: I32, I38, C21, C25