Official PDF , 504 pages

504 Pages·2009·2.75 MB·English

by  World Bank Group

Deepa Narayan
, editor 48598
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MOVING OUT OF POVERTY, VOLUME 3
The Promise of Empowerment
and Democracy in India
About the Series
The Moving Out of Poverty series presents the results of new comparative
research across more than 500 communities in 15 countries on how and
why poor people move out of poverty. The findings lay the foundations for
new policies that will promote inclusive growth and just societies, and move
millions out of poverty.
The series was launched in 2007 under the editorial direction of Deepa
Narayan, former senior adviser in the World Bank. She earlier directed the
pathbreaking Voices of the Poor project.
Titles in the Moving Out of Poverty series:
Volume 1 Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives on Mobility
Volume 2 Success from the Bottom Up
Volume 3 The Promise of Empowerment and Democracy in India
Volume 4 Rising from the Ashes of Conflict (forthcoming)
Moving

Out of
Poverty

VOLUME 3
The Promise of Empowerment
and Democracy in India
Deepa Narayan, Editor
A COPUBLICATION OF PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
AND THE WORLD BANK
©2009 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank
1818 H Street NW
Washington DC 20433
Telephone: [phone]
Internet: www.worldbank.org
E-mail: [email protected]
All rights reserved
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A copublication of The World Bank and Palgrave Macmillan.
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe,
and other countries.
This volume is a product of the staff of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The
World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this volume do not necessarily
reflect the views of the Executive Directors of The World Bank or the governments they represent.
The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries,
colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judge-
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acceptance of such boundaries.
Rights and Permissions
The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work
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ISBN: 978-0-8213-7217-3 (softcover) eISBN: 978-0-8213-7218-0 (softcover)
ISBN: 978-0-8213-7838-0 (hardcover) DOI: 10.1596/978-0-8213-7217-3
ISSN: None
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Cover design: Drew Fasick
Cover photograph: Brice Richard
Printed in the United States
Dedication
To the thousands of women, men, and youth who took the time
to share with us their experiences, their hopes, and their dreams

Contents
Preface xv
Acknowledgment s xvii
Contributors xxi
Abbreviations xxv
Glossary xxvii
Map of India xxviii
1 Moving Out of Poverty in India: An Overview 2
Deepa Narayan, Binayak Sen, and Katy Hull
2 Assets Gained and Lost: Understanding Mobility
through Life Stories 64
Deepa Narayan, Denis Nikitin, and Brice Richard
3 Communities Where Poor People Prosper 112
Deepa Narayan, Patti Petesch, and Saumik Paul
4 Caste Dynamics and Mobility in Uttar Pradesh 166
Soumya Kapoor, Deepa Narayan, Saumik Paul, and Nina Badgaiyan
5 People’s Organizations and Poverty Escapes
in Rural Andhra Pradesh 234
Deepa Narayan, Giovanna Prennushi, and Soumya Kapoor
6 Politics of the Middle Path: Agrarian Reform
and Poverty Dynamics in West Bengal 286
Klaus Deininger, Deepa Narayan, and Binayak Sen
7 Who Benefits from Conflict? Some Evidence from Assam 348
Deepa Narayan, Binayak Sen, and Ashutosh Varshney
Appendix 1 Technical Note on Household Regressions 417
Appendix 2 Data Collection Methods 437
Appendix 3 List of Variables for Household Regressions 443
Appendix 4 Weights for the PCA-Constructed Indexes, by State 449
Index 453
vii
viii Contents
Tables
1.1 The ladder of life in Kamalapur, Andhra Pradesh 12
1.2 Summary indicators of mobility 16
1.3 Objective measures of well-being largely align with subjective
perceptions 18
1.4 Moving out of poverty and falling into poverty both affect net
poverty reduction rates 24
1.5 Across mobility groups, initiative is most important reason for
upward movement 26
1.6 In agriculture, movers benefit from new assets and technology
while chronic poor rely on hard work 27
1.7 Death and health shocks are leading reason for asset depletion
among fallers 30
1.8 In all mobility groups, a majority of parents have high aspirations
for their children 33
1.9 Across mobility groups, family is the most important institution
in asset accumulation 37
1.10 Correlates of escape from poverty: Summary results from state-level
household regressions for movers 42
1.11 Well-off people get business loans from government banks, while
poor people rely on moneylenders 47
1.12 Civil society organizations are among the sources of credit for
consumption 48
2.1 Life stories show the importance of intangible as well as tangible
assets 71
2.2 All groups emphasize emotional over relational assets, but the
chronic poor rely on emotional assets most of all 73
2.3 Accumulation and depletion are simultaneous across mobility
groups 77
2.4 Poor people take as much initiative as movers and the never poor 80
2.5 In agriculture, the chronic poor rely more than other groups on
hard work, less on new technology and assets 81
2.6 Family is the most important institution in asset accumulation 83
2.7 Idiosyncratic shocks are the most important in causing asset depletion 89
2.8 Death, health, and social stresses are most important idiosyncratic
shocks 90
2.9 Social and financial shocks are the main reasons for land depletion 93
2.10 Most covariant shocks relate to environmental hazards or lack
of basic services 94
2.11 Financial shocks have the largest and longest impact on mobility 102
A2.A Composition of accumulation through four types of institutions 106
A2.B Composition of accumulation through central/state government 107