Rural Poor: Who Are They and Why? A Case Study of Madhya Pradesh

An attempt has been made in this paper to examine, identify and characterise the poor not only on the basis of their economic parameters but also by their social background. In this direction, specific economic features of the households have been identified first, which determine their standard of living. In addition, the social background of these families has been examined to understand if these have any poverty extenuating consequences over and above their economic handicap and well-being. A logistic regression exercise has been undertaken to point out specifically the effects of the economic and social variables of the households, on their income, separately as well as the combined effect of various combinations of these two types of household variables. In this exercise it is ascertained that the likelihood / odds of a household coming under poverty is greater either with a specific economic of social characteristic of the household or a combination of these two. In addition, a simple regression exercise has estimated the increments or deductions in monthly per-capita consumption expenditures of individuals for given changes in their economic, social and regional characteristics.