Mapping the Periphery:The Poor Communities in the Southern States

This paper presents the development characteristics of four broad groups of rural poor: scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, backward castes and religious minorities. The paper is based on the household data collected from thirty selected villages located in the four southern states. The data relate to the year 1992-93. The analysis seeks to bring out the significant differences in the development status among the broad groups of rural poor as also the gap in this respect between the poor and the rural upper strata. The data for the scheduled castes are disaggregated to see the differences across states, village types and sub-castes. An intention of the paper is to suggest that the Panchayat Raj Institutions operating at the district and lower levels could make use of relatively simple household data to identify meaningful subcategories of poor and prioritise anti-poverty programmes in a more effective manner than is possible by a procedure depending only on measurement of poverty. The paper also emphasises the need for researchers and policymakers to go beyond measurement of poverty to understand the poor and to see the link between poverty and the socio-economic environment and policy regime in which the poor operate.