In 20 villages of Vadodara and Panchmahals districts of Gujarat 9.2 per cent of all households have escaped from poverty over the past 25 years, but another 7.3 per cent of households in these villages have fallen into poverty at the same time. Different reasons account, respectively, for escaping poverty and for falling into poverty, and different policies will be required to deal with each of these separate trends. Growth alone will not suffice to deal effectively with poverty. Reasons for falling into poverty will need to be tackled separately through suitable public policies and appropriate non-government actions.