Assessment of Well-Being in Multidimensional Perspective in Post Reform India

Abstract

This paper analyses the changes in Social Welfare and Inequality during post reform period in the framework of Atkinson Social Welfare Function. Our results suggest acceleration in the growth of social welfare at All India and broad expenditure groups of population. The acceleration of growth in Social Welfare was accompanied by worsening of inequality. This paper provides estimates of elasticity of poverty and welfare with respect to growth and inequality. It also evaluates the performance of states in poverty reduction. The results show substantial inter-state and inter social group variations in poverty reduction. In almost all the states relative poverty of Scheduled communities increased in the post reform period and relative poverty levels were higher for these communities in developed states including Punjab, Haryana and Kerala. Decomposition of poverty reduction between 1993/94 and 2009/10 and simulation exercises show that poverty reduction would have been substantially more, had all states achieved same growth of MPCE as that of All India and inequalities remained at 1993/94 level. This paper suggests an approach to pool two independent surveys data - NSS 61st round (2004/05) and NFHS-3 (2005/06) and provides estimates of multidimensional poverty considering income poverty, child malnutrition, and female chronic energy deficiency under alternative rules of aggregation. This paper also evaluates states performance in the reduction of multidimensional poverty and ranks the states on the basis of multiple deprivations.