Irma Adelman K Subbarao Prem Vashishtha Studies on income distribution have tended to be point observations and throw little light on longer-term movements in relative inequality. Analysis of movement in poverty ratios on the basis of data on rural households collected by the NCAER for three years between 1968 and 1971, using probability models, have led the authors of the paper to conclude that long-term trends are divergent for different states. For seven states