Exploring the Poverty Question

The author argues that the claim by individual governments and by the World Bank that Asia has seen a large reduction in poverty over the last three decades, is a spurious claim. It is the result of a logical mistake, namely de-linking without any explanation, the definition of poverty from satisfaction of nutrition norms, so that in practice the poor are being improperly counted below a steadily declining standard of food consumption. Using nearly 50 years of data from India’s National Sample Survey, she shows that applying a constant nutrition standard over time, poverty had worsened considerably over the period of neoliberal reforms.