Disparity in income poverty and multidimensional poverty estimates: The Indian scenario with special reference to Salboni and Binpur‐I blocks

There is no consensus among studies about how to define or measure poverty. Two widely used criteria to estimate poverty are the minimum expenditure criteria (income or monetary poverty) and the extent of deprivation regarding different dimensions representing quality of living of individuals (multidimensional poverty). This study compares income poverty and multidimensional poverty estimates across Indian states in recent years. Although both the poverty estimates indicate significant reduction in poverty, income and multidimensional poverty estimates differ significantly. Then the critical question is whether both measures identify the same set of households as poor or not. If alternate definitions of poverty identify different households as poor then we should be cautious about choosing the correct method to estimate poverty. In this context, we have studied the cases of two blocks, Salboni and Binpur I from Paschim Medinipur district in West Bengal. Using our own data from these two blocks, we find that poverty incidence calculated using two different measures for Salboni and Binpur I blocks give significantly different estimates. Even though most of the multidimensional poor households were also identified as income poor, not all income poor households were identified as multidimensionally poor. 摘要 关于如何定义或衡量贫困，学术研究没有达成共识。两个广泛使用的贫困估计标准分别为最低支出标准（收入或货币贫困）和代表个人生活质量的不同维度的剥夺程度（多维度贫困）。本研究比较了近年来印度各邦的收入贫困估计与多维度贫困估计。虽然这两种贫困估计都表明贫困显著减少，但这两种估计存在显著差异。关键的问题在于，这两种衡量标准是否都将同一组家庭确定为贫困家庭。如果不同的贫困定义将不同的家庭确定为贫困家庭，那么我们应该谨慎选择正确的贫困估计方法。在此背景下，我们研究了西孟加拉邦Paschim Medinipur区Salboni和Binpur I这两个街区的案例。通过使用这两个街区的原始数据，我们发现，使用两种不同方法计算出的贫困发生率得出了显著不同的估计结果。尽管大多数多维贫困家庭也被识别为收入贫困家庭，但并非所有收入贫困家庭都被识别为多维度贫困家庭。 Resumen No existe consenso entre los estudios sobre cómo definir o medir la pobreza. Dos criterios ampliamente utilizados para estimar la pobreza son el criterio de gasto mínimo (pobreza de ingresos o monetaria) y el grado de privación en las diferentes dimensiones que representan la calidad de vida de los individuos (pobreza multidimensional). Este estudio compara las estimaciones de la pobreza de ingresos y la pobreza multidimensional en los estados de la India en los últimos años. Aunque ambas estimaciones de pobreza indican una reducción significativa de la pobreza, las estimaciones de pobreza multidimensional y de ingresos difieren significativamente. Entonces, la pregunta crítica es si ambas medidas identifican al mismo conjunto de hogares como pobres o no. Si definiciones alternativa