Poverty and Literacy Status of the Indian States: Group Differential Measures

Abstract

This paper uses group differential measure proposed by Nathan and Mishra (2008) to evaluate the differences in socio-economic indicators among various groups for the states of India. The paper examines two indicators: poverty estimates - as failure indicator and literacy rate as attainment indicator. The groups considered in the present study are rural and urban populace, gender-wise groups, and social groups like SC and ST. This paper also examines the validity of the proposition made by Nathan and Mishra (2008) that for assessing level sensitivity attainment indicator should not be reversed to indicate failure or vice versa.

Keywords: poverty, literacy, group differential, SC , ST, socio-economic, indicator