Political Economy of Development, Poverty and Change in Bihar
Principal Researchers:
Prof. Sandip Sarkar
Theme: Growth and Employment
Sponsor: Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)
Aims & Objectives: The project studied the pattern of development and change in the level of living and well‐being that occurred during the last three and a half decades in rural Bihar. These changes were analysed encompassing various aspects of the political economy of the state considering among others aspects as such as caste, class, gender relations etc. that suited this research to discuss how the benefits of development and growth were being distributed among various strata of the population.
The research project specifically aimed at assessing the following:
- Several inter‐related themes covering development, poverty, livelihood and pattern of changes in them.
- Access to employment and active participation in the labour market.
- Gender relations which are crucial to understand the persistence of poverty and are important instruments of development and change in a society like Bihar with a huge gender gap and exhibiting low levels of human development indicators.
- Social inclusion and participation of various sections in the growth process.
Methodology: The research was based on surveys of the economic characteristics of villages and households in rural Bihar. The study used longitudinal village and household surveys spanning from the 1980s to 2009‐11, which were supplemented by a fresh survey. In the case of the core 12 villages, the households sampled in 2009-10 were the successors of the sample of 891 households studied in depth in 1998-99. 974 successor households were identified and included in the 2009-10 survey. In the remaining 24 villages, while the same procedure was adopted for the choice of households in 2009-10, the information available on these households in 1998-99 is more limited, so analysis of change was concentrated on the 12 core villages. The total household sample for the 36 villages in 2009-10 was 3,116 households. The survey in 2016-17 was limited to 12 villages for which detailed information was collected as in preceding 3 surveys.