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This
paper explores why the official poverty estimates show
low levels as well as decline in poverty in India over
the 1990s, whereas all other economic and social indicators
suggest that absolute poverty is high. The former do
not capture the true picture because the official method
involves the 'fallacy of equivocation'. It is also argued
that when actual rural poverty is as high as nearly
four-fifths of the population and poverty depth is increasing
with a higher proportion of people being pushed down
into lower nutritional status, there is an urgent need
to revert to a demand-driven universal public distribution
system. |
