Chronic Poverty Research Centre

Three quarters of India's poor live in rural areas but poverty is concentrated in certain geographical regions. For instance, in 1993-1994 about 50 per cent of the rural poor were concentrated in the four most populated states. However, if one looks at the incidence of poverty at the regional level, one finds a more diverse picture. This suggests that apart from population size, rural poverty is characterised by certain deep-rooted processes, superimposed on the relatively weak endowment and/or access to natural resources in a large number of states and regions in the country.