Estimation of Poverty and Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation Programs

This Work is an attempt to provide appropriate poverty line that encompasses not only food expenditure but also non- food expenditure. The issue raised under study is that monthly per capita food expenditure just sufficient to cover calorie norms for subsistence is inadequate for living. Another issue is that poverty as per official estimate of Indian planners is underestimated. For identification of the poor, a poverty profile has been developed on the basis of demographic characteristics, expenditure, income, occupation, education, and housing. Various measures of poverty estimation like - Head count ratio, Poverty gap index, Sen index, Squared poverty index, Thon index, etc. have been applied to measure incidence, intensity and severity of income poverty. This book also helps the researchers in analyzing trends in poverty, working out the determinants of poverty, estimating poverty; constructing poverty deprivation index, finding effectiveness of poverty alleviation programmes; and finally suggesting suitable poverty alleviation measures. The issue of poverty has been dealt comprehensively.