The Great Indian Poverty Debate

Reviews the recent debate poverty trends in India since the market-oriented economic liberalization in 1991

Angus Deaton and Valerie Kozel (eds), MacMillan, Delhi, 2005

ISBN 1403-92644-1

Introduction

The Great Indian Poverty Debate , edited by Angus Deaton (Princeton University) and Valerie Kozel (the World Bank), brings together a number of papers concerning the recent debate on the trend of poverty in India since the market-oriented economic liberalization that began in 1991.¹ The majority of the papers included in the volume were first presented at a workshop organized by India's Planning Commission and the World Bank. The debate on Indian poverty estimates has garnered worldwide interest, both because of the importance of India's poverty estimates to determining the extent and the trend of poverty in the world as a whole, and because the methodological issues that have arisen in the debate are laden with implications for other countries.² The lengthy and variegated volume, containing contributions from many distinguished scholars from within the country and around the world, provides a remarkable testament to India's perhaps uniquely strong tradition of economic and statistical research related to poverty and to impressive sophistication and reach of the country's official statistical apparatus. On the other hand, it stands as a shocking evidence of the extent of confusion that has been sewn in every quarter, including the most exalted, by lack of clarity over basic concepts, in particular concerning who is to be identified as poor and for what reasons.

The Great Indian Poverty Debate provides a thorough survey of the major issues that have been raised in the recent debate on Indian consumption poverty estimates. It provides a signal service to scholars, officials, and citizens who have not previously been initiated into this recondite debate, as well as to those whose professional obligations require them better to understand it. Among the important issues that are addressed in the volume, and which have been central to the debate, are the appropriate manner in which to resolve conflicts (concerning in particular estimated household consumption levels) between the national accounts data and the National Sample Survey (NSS) data, the appropriate choice of recall period in surveys concerning household consumption, the appropriate choice of initial poverty line, and the appropriate means for...