Poverty in West Bengal-What Have We Learnt

What Have We Learnt?
Biswajit Chatterjee This article reviews some of the existing studies on the incidence of poverty in West Bengal, with particular emphasis on the decades of 1970s and 1980s, Discussions of the implications of all-India or inter-state poverty studies on the poverty scenario in West Bengal are followed by a critical review of some of the major studies of rural and urban poverty in the stateThe aggregative state level scenario as portrayed by these studies has been contrasted with the grass roots level picture of rural poverty as it has been brought out by some of the recent case studies based on household surveys tresurveys. The implications of all these studies for formulation of effective anti-poverty policies in West Bengal are also emphasised in this paper.