Rural Poverty in Bihar 1961-62 to 1970-71

This paper seeks to analyse the distribution of consumption expenditure and the incidence of poverty in rural Bihar during the 1960s. While inequality in the distribution of consumption expenditure remained more or less unchanged between 1961-62 and 1970-71, there was a fall in the average real per capita expenditure of all segments of the rural population. Moreover, this period witnessed a marked increase in the proportion of the rural poor, and, in 1970-71, it is estimated that 60 per cent of the rural population in Bihar lived below the poverty line.