On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, John Mage wrote:
> Here is Jyati Ghosh on the subject (relying in part on the study of NSS
> figures by Abhijit Sen):
>
> <http://www.macroscan.com/cur/feb04/cur090204Income_Inequality_India.htm>
>
> in relevant part:
>
> "But the most dramatic evidence is for the bottom 80 per cent of the
> rural population – well more than half of India’s total population. For
> these people, who now number nearly 600 million, per capita consumption
> has actually declined since 1989-90. In other words, even the official
> statistics of the government still show that more than half of India has
> lower consumption per person than more than 10 years ago, after a decade
> when national income were supposed to be growing at around 6 per cent!"
>
Like Chris wondered earlier about WB definitions of consumption: does this mean commodity consumption? Goods and services bought and sold? Or is it actually (say) consuming adequate calories to maintain good health? (It disturbs me how often the term "consumption" is reduced to the idea of purchasing commodities.)
Miles