Rural Poverty and Correlates in Paschim Medinipur District of West Bengal : A Note

Paschim Medinipur district being ecologically diverse with high concentration of scheduled tribe population shows rural poverty varying widely across the blocks of the district. Rural poverty across the blocks is significantly related with their foodgrains productivity, literacy rate, proportion of non-agricultural workers, crop diversification, road length and credit. Reduction of the poverty incidence, therefore, requires laying stress on increasing productivity of land, expansion of non-agricultural employment, extension of minor irrigation that enhances crop diversification, skill upgradation that helps increase in non-agricultural employment and better implementation of Work Guarantee Programmes that would reduce the proportion of marginal workers, and also financial inclusion, promotion of micro-credit institution and development of Self -Help Groups (SHGs) as well as increase in literacy, particularly female literacy.