Main Banner Image
Poverty & Inequality

Urban exclusion: Rethinking social protection in India in the wake of Covid-19

Economic insecurity caused by lockdowns during the early days of Covid-19 forced many households to rely on government welfare schemes to fulfil their consumption needs. Using data from the June 2020 ...

  • Articles

Fatal oblivion: India's National Family Benefit Scheme

The National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) – which provides financial assistance to families in the event of the death of a breadwinner – has been plagued by low budget allocations, restricted cove...

  • Perspectives

The implications of India’s spatial development

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “poverty is the worst form of violence”. In this piece, Ejaz Ghani highlights India’s poverty burden, its regional disparities and convergence thereof. He highlights ho...

  • Articles
Refine list by:
--Please Select--
--Please Select--

Has India eliminated extreme poverty?

In the second post of a six-part series on Gaurav Datt unpacks the claim that India was on the verge of eliminating extreme poverty, and questions two key assumptions on which it rests. Rather, he sh...

  • Perspectives

The implications of India’s spatial development

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “poverty is the worst form of violence”. In this piece, Ejaz Ghani highlights India’s poverty burden, its regional disparities and convergence thereof. He highlights ho...

  • Articles

How financial access impacts women’s decision-making role in households

Government programmes which grant women access to financial support often provide assistance which is too small to significantly impact women’s economic position within the household. This article u...

  • Articles

The post-pandemic global inequality boomerang

Global inequality has fallen over the last three decades, despite a rise in inequality within some countries. This article uses a World Bank database covering the years 1981-2019 to posit that the dec...

  • Articles

Urban exclusion: Rethinking social protection in India in the wake of Covid-19

Economic insecurity caused by lockdowns during the early days of Covid-19 forced many households to rely on government welfare schemes to fulfil their consumption needs. Using data from the June 2020 ...

  • Articles

Using personalised information delivery to improve uptake of emergency government benefits

Although many governments introduced additional benefits as part of existing welfare schemes for Covid-19 relief, there is often a significant gap between the introduction of, and access to these bene...

  • Articles

A microfinance model to enhance borrowers’ lifetime utility

Research has shown that providing credit along with services such as savings instruments, can increase the utility that borrowers obtain from credit. Presenting a theoretical model where microfinance ...

  • Articles

Examining Himachal’s urban employment guarantee

Despite proposals by economists on the need for an urban work programme in India, a national-level policy seems some time away from coming to fruition. However, some states have implemented such progr...

  • Notes from the Field

Covid-19 and long-term poverty: Evidence from rural Rajasthan

Based on preliminary calculations, it is being reported that 77-220 million have fallen into poverty in India on account of Covid-19, with the poor now accounting for 60% of urban, and 70% of rural re...

  • Articles

Fatal oblivion: India's National Family Benefit Scheme

The National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) – which provides financial assistance to families in the event of the death of a breadwinner – has been plagued by low budget allocations, restricted cove...

  • Perspectives

Crime in the village: Does road infrastructure make a difference?

Access to better infrastructure is critical for poverty alleviation and economic development in rural India. Analysing data from the 2004-05 and 2011-12 waves of the India Human Development Survey (IH...

  • Articles

MNREGA funds allocation: Honouring the work-on-demand guarantee

The Centre has sought an additional Rs. 25,000 crore as funding for MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). Based on simple calculations using official data, Ashwini Kulkarni ...

  • Perspectives

Recent Contributors

Sandip

Sandip Sukhtankar

University of Virginia

Karthik

Karthik Muralidharan

University of California, San Diego

Paul

Paul Niehaus

University of California, San Diego

Ejaz

Ejaz Ghani

Pune International Center

Students of Humanities and

Students of Humanities and Social Sciences Department

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Dhananjay

Dhananjay Sinha

Systematix Group

Purvi

Purvi Mundhra

Systematix Group

Shagun

Shagun Sabarwal

WomenLift Health

View all Contributors

Most Popular Poverty & Inequality Posts

Wealth inequality, class, and caste in India: 1961-2012

The level of wealth inequality in India is close to that of some highly unequal countries in the world. This article assesses the long-term evolution of wealth inequality in the country for the period...

  • Articles

Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population

With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...

  • Perspectives

EWS reservation in higher education: Affirmative action or vote bank politics?

The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provides for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher educational institutions within the general category. In this post, Devi...

  • Perspectives