Declining Incidence of Poverty in the 1980s Evidence versus Artefacts B S Minhas L R Jain S D Tendulkar By constructing appropriate cost of living indices, which allow for the observed variations in consumption patterns and prices across states, the state-specific rural and urban poverty norms as well as the corresponding estimates of the incidence of poverty in 20 states and all-India in 1987-88 are presented, A set of criteria for ranking of states according to poverty alleviation performance is suggested. However, the reported numerical exercise in ranking is taken to reflect only a descriptive monitoring of the observed performance of different states between 1970-71 and 1987-88, without any pretensions to the analysis of the underlying causes of inter-state differences in performance on the poverty front.
