Articles by Abusaleh Shariff

This paper presents trends in public expenditures on social sector and poverty alleviation programmes from 1990-91. A considerable proportion of these expenditures is undertaken by the states but the central share seems to be increasing over time. This paper analyses trends in state expenditure, expenditure by the central government and central and state adjusted combined expenditures. Overall, expenditure on social sector schemes is increasing in real terms but mainly through increased expenditure of the central government. The state governments seem to be easing out of their constitutional commitment to sustain programmes in the social sectors, which is a matter of concern. Secondly, there are large inter-sectoral reallocations of funds in the poverty alleviation sectors. One major development has been that large funds that were allocated to employment generation have now been diverted to the rural road construction programme. This reallocation may have serious implications for employment generation.

In spite of early apprehensions, the foodgrain production in India has kept pace with population growth. Acute large-scale famines, which used to occur periodically before independence, have now been eliminated. In spite of this, a large proportion of poor households across India does not have access to adequate food due to lack of purchasing power. About 35 per cent or around 325 million Indians are classified as 'poor'. Over 70 per cent of the family income in this category is spent to meet food and nutritional needs alone. The quinquennial consumer expenditure surveys of the NSSO make the estimation of the per capita intake of different food items and consequent supply of energy, proteins, fat, iron and calcium, possible. In this paper these estimates are presented at the all-India level according to expenditure class categories. According to this analysis food and nutrition deficiencies are much larger than what one would conceive by looking into poverty estimates.

Demographic Variables and Structure of Poverty Abusaleh Shariff Population Growth and Poverty in Rural South Asia edited by Gerry Rodgers; Sage Publications, New Delhi, 1989, pp 249; Rs 195 (hardbound).