Poverty and Neo-Liberalism

I have chosen the topic of poverty and neo-liberalism for this lecture for two reasons: first, the beginning of poverty studies in India is associated with the names of Prof. V M Dondekar and Prof. Nilakantha Rath, both long associated with this Institute, who carried out a pioneering conceptualization of poverty and laid the basis for subsequent estimates of the numbers of the poor. Second, today we cannot escape from the pervasiveness of neo-liberal policies in our lives, and when discussing poverty trends we have to consider the differential impact these policies have had on the living standards of the well-to-do on the one hand, and on the other, their impact on the livelihoods and food security of the vast masses of the poor who still comprise the majority of this country's population even six decades after Independence. Sinee the majority of the poor are in rural areas the focus of the discussion will be on rural poverty.