Growth, Poverty and Levels of Living:Hypotheses, Methods and Policies

The present papers takes stock of the recent methodological attempts to estimate poverty and examines the scope for further improvement. As an attempt in this direction, changes in real consumption basket and its methodological and policy implications are examined. Based on the National Sample Survey data, the paper examines the changes in aggregate consumer expenditure, cereal quantity consumption and consumption patterns with the possible appropriate fractile-group and commodity specific price adjustments. The results show that poverty increased till mid-sixties and declined thereafter as a result of a decline in real income/consumption and a recovery. Cereal consumption has been virtually stagnant since 1952. With limited increases in aggregate real consumption after mid-1970s, the poor have gone in for quality and variety in their consumption involving changes in consumption patterns in favour of superior cereals, and marginal increases in non-cereal food items, but still below the subsistence threshold in terms of calorie intake.