Emergence of the new poor in rural India: some reflections

Rural India – following the COVID-induced shrinking of employment opportunities; heavy reliance on adverse coping strategies, including liquidation of productive assets and dispensing with productive investments; and inadequacies in government-support programs – may observe both further deterioration of its existing poor and the emergence of a new poor, with characteristics and implications that are dissimilar to those of the existing poor. The dynamic characteristics of poverty are not adequately captured by the official statistics and issues of flows into and out of poverty continue to remain a puzzle in India. Therefore, this paper underscores the urgent need to undertake evidence-based research to identify and profile the new poor and to customise the welfare schemes addressing their specific needs and priorities. It further argues for a rethinking of the role of local institutions, i.e. Gram Panchayats, in the tracking of poverty and in conceiving the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP), prioritising resource allocation for the new poor.