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Poverty & Inequality

Finding the indiscernible poor: Community knowledge as a targeting approach

Varying estimates of poverty have often resulted in some deprived communities being excluded from government welfare schemes. Sabarwal and Chowdhry look at the case of Satat Jeevikoparjan Yojana in Bi...

  • Perspectives

Introduction to e-Symposium: Estimation of poverty in India

Estimates of poverty in India put forth in two papers published earlier this year – by Bhalla, Bhasin and Virmani; and Roy and van der Weide – have sparked the “Great Indian Poverty Debate 2.0...

  • Symposium

How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households

Government programmes which grant women access to financial support often provide assistance which is too small to significantly impact women’s economic position within the household. This article u...

  • Articles
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How has Covid-19 crisis affected urban poor? Findings from a phone survey - II

While several commentators have highlighted the plight of migrants due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, less is known about how low-income families living in urban shanty towns are faring. Afridi et al...

  • Notes from the Field

Webinar: Impact of Covid-19 on informal and migrant workers in India

The International Growth Centre (IGC), in collaboration with I4I, organised a Webinar on 'The impact of Covid-19 on informal and migrant workers in India', with Jean Drèze (Ranchi University), Farzan...

  • Perspectives

How has Covid-19 crisis affected the urban poor? Findings from a phone survey - I

While several commentators have highlighted the plight of migrants due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, less is known about how low-income families living in urban shanty towns are faring. In this note...

  • Notes from the Field

Balancing corruption and exclusion: Incorporating Aadhaar into PDS

How should recipients of publicly provided goods and services prove their identity in order to access these benefits? This article reports findings from a large-scale experiment across 15 million bene...

  • Articles

Lockdown, life, and livelihood in the times of Corona

After around 36 hours of the lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in India, the Finance Minister announced a slew of welfare measures amounting to Rs. 1.7 trillion to support the vulnerable popu...

  • Perspectives

Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population

With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...

  • Perspectives

Populism: Why in rich countries and in good times

Economic anxiety and insecurity are often cited as drivers of populism, so why has populism emerged over the past few years in rich countries and in good times? This article argues that when the econo...

  • Articles

What is happening to rural welfare, poverty, and inequality in India?

An analysis of the draft National Statistical Office report that the Government has decided not to put out shows a deterioration in 2017-18 in consumption and poverty levels in rural India. The reason...

  • Articles

Economic mobility in India: Estimation using ‘noisy’ data

There has been a dramatic rise in inequality in India post-liberalisation. This article finds economic mobility to be markedly low, with at least seven out of 10 poor households remaining poor or at-r...

  • Articles

EWS reservation in higher education: Affirmative action or vote bank politics?

The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provides for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher educational institutions within the general category. In this post, Devi...

  • Perspectives

Household-level effects of affordable housing: Evidence from Mumbai

Programmes involving sale of subsidised houses to lower-middle class households have been spearheaded in all major Indian cities. This article studies the effects of one such programme implemented thr...

  • Articles

Challenges in decentralised implementation of centrally mandated anti-poverty programmes

Even when the central government is committed to a jobs guarantee, rationing of work opportunities can arise under decentralised implementation in poor places. This article examines India’s efforts ...

  • Articles

Recent Contributors

Students of Humanities and

Students of Humanities and Social Sciences Department

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Dhananjay

Dhananjay Sinha

Systematix Group

Purvi

Purvi Mundhra

Systematix Group

Shagun

Shagun Sabarwal

WomenLift Health

Parikrama

Parikrama Chowdhry

J-Pal South Asia

Jean

Jean Drèze

Ranchi University; Delhi School of Economics

Anmol

Anmol Somanchi

Paris School of Economics

Himanshu

Himanshu .

Jawaharlal Nehru University

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Most Popular Poverty & Inequality Posts

Wealth inequality, class, and caste in India: 1961-2012

The level of wealth inequality in India is close to that of some highly unequal countries in the world. This article assesses the long-term evolution of wealth inequality in the country for the period...

  • Articles

Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population

With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...

  • Perspectives

EWS reservation in higher education: Affirmative action or vote bank politics?

The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provides for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher educational institutions within the general category. In this post, Devi...

  • Perspectives