Standard of Living Index (SLI) and Inequalities in the Rural Areas of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract:     
The GDP per person in India doubled from US $260 in 1980 to US $538 in 2003. However, growth has not been evenly distributed among India’s various sectors, and the composition of GDP has changed. Agriculture used to be the leading sector, but its GDP share dropped from 57 per cent in 1950 to 22 per cent in 2002 and is estimated to 18.6 percent during 2006-2007. More than 65 per cent of India’s population is rural, and 58 per cent of the rural labour force works in agriculture. These people are mainly marginal farmers or small farmers that accounts for less than one third of the country’s total farming area. In India the diversities in economic and social development have different capacities of poverty reduction for a variety of reasons. In this study the standard of living index of a household has been classified by adding scores assigned to various items and the total score representing the SLI of the household. The Lorenz curve can be obtained if we have the value of SLI for each household of the population. Broadly the SLI of a household has been classified by adding scores assigned to various items and the total score representing the SLI of the household. Though the total score of SLI has been tabulated with the help of raw data, the exact score for SLI of a household can be computed.

Keywords: Indian Economy, Rural Economy, Poverty, Standard of Living, GDP

JEL Classification: I0, O4, R2

Accepted Paper Series