About the Book :

Rural poverty is a much studied topic. However, in most of the studies, poverty is measured on the basis of an unidimensional measure of nutritional inadequacy. This study deviates from the other studies in capturing several other aspects of poverty like income insufficiency, resource deprivation and low quality of life. In all seventeen indicators are used. Poverty profiles of 64 regions are prepared on the basis of these indicators. An attempt is then made to understand these poverty situations with the help of structural (agrarian), geophysical and policy variables. Though multivariate regression method is also used as a tool of analysis, main stress is on preparing a typology of poverty and its correlates using cluster analysis. The study makes it possible to find answers to questions like why different poverty situations emerge from similar policy mixes and why these have not happened as desired. As such, it is not merely and exercise in numbers which soon becomes outdated but is an exercise in understand the processes which generate poverty in all its dimensions.

About Author :

B.C. Mehta is Professor in the Department of Economics, Sukhadia University, Udaipur (India). He has also thought at University of Jodhpur and University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. He visited University of Pennsylvania, (U.S.A.) in 1980-81 as a post doctoral fellow. He has participated in many national and international conferences and seminars. He has published more then six dozen research papers. He has completed eight major research projects. Dr. Mehta has many books to his credit, some of which are: Regional Population Growth; A Case Study of Rajasthan (1978); Structure of the Rural Economy of Rajasthan (with Ashok Khandelwal, 1981); Structure of Rajasthan's Economy: An Input-Output Analysis (1983, 1986); Agrarian Relations and Rural Exploitation (with A. Prashad, 1988); Future Population Pressure and Demand for Key Products (1988) and Researches in the Structure and Growth of Rajasthan's Economy (1989). Some of his text-books are: Mathematics for Economists (with Madnani), Fundamentals of Econometrics, and Mathematical Economics. Micro-Economics Models. Dr. Mehta is Chief Editor of Rajasthan Economic Journal since its inception in 1977.