Poverty, Inequality and Prices in Rural India

This path-breaking book provides a comprehensive analysis of the absolute and relative levels of living in India's rural population over a thirty year period (1952-83).

The authors examine the disparities in consumption across households, the trends in such disparities and in the incidence of absolute poverty.

This is combined with an examination of the differential price trends faced by different sections of the population.

The conclusion is that the prices of items bought by poorer people have risen more steeply than those purchased by the relatively affluent.

At the same time, the data reveal that the standards of living of the rural population have not changed significantly but that the bottom forty per cent of the rural population has remained chronically poor.