Minimum-wage criteria provide a more realistic poverty line
What has been missing in the heated debates about the poverty line is a clear enunciation of which basic needs should be included. The 15th Indian Labour Conference of 1957 might have come up with the most comprehensive criteria for defining the minimum wage required to meet basic needs, writes Kathyayini Chamaraj
Reading between the poverty lines
India’s new Below Poverty Line estimate based on the Tendulkar Committee report has been hailed as being much more realistic than earlier estimates. But does it adequately count and include the poor of this nation, asks Sachin Kumar Jain
As the economy grows, so too does hunger
If successive governments had devoted just a fraction of the effort that has gone into propping up trade and industry into fighting hunger and malnutrition, India would not be ranked a dismal 66th in the 2008 Global Hunger Index
The economics of violence: Growth with inequality
The World Bank claims that poverty in Asia has been halved between 1990 and 2003. But, says John Samuel, the story looks good only until you see the underbelly of this economic growth - growing inequality, violence and pollution
How India lives: Inequality, impoverisation and identity
A recent paper in EPW clearly demonstrates the links between poverty and vulnerability caused by social identity in India. It also demonstrates the extent to which inequality is increasing. This is a recipe for political dissent, says John Samuel
Measuring global poverty: India on 20 cents a day
Global poverty estimates report the number of people living on less than $1 or $2 a day. But purchasing power (dis)parities suggest that it could be more accurate to say that the poor in countries like India are living on less than $0.20 or $0.40 a day, says Aseem Shrivastava
Are micro-finance institutions exploiting the poor?
The high interest rates and forced loan recovery practices of micro-finance institutions have been held responsible for the suicide of several farmers in Andhra Pradesh. It is evident that poverty makes good business sense to MFIs, writes Sudhirendar Sharma
Breathing life into farming
The guarantee of 100 days of work in a year cannot by itself provide food security. The trick, says alternative technologist K R Datye, lies in using the NREGA not to build roads but to regenerate the land and create permanent rural assets which will facilitate sustainable livelihoods
They don't buy it
Inequalities will persist if we continue to look at India's poor only as consumers
'India's rural poor need a New Deal'
Rural India is in acute distress, crying out for food and work, says economist Utsa Patnaik. Rural Indians are actually purchasing and consuming less foodgrain per capita today than they were in 1991
