Policy Forum on Rural Development, Poverty and Hunger: Session C Comments of S. Chatterjee, Discussant Head, Poverty Unit ADB

Poverty and Hunger Magnitudes of Asia’s deprivations become very large if viewed from the angle of hunger: India: $1 a day poor 31% while incidence of hunger (those below 2200 calories a day) is 58%; 50% poor vs 61% hungry in Bangladesh; 27% poor vs 40% hungry in Laos etc. – what would be the poverty line if a basic calorific norm of 2200 is to be ensured? Progress of reduction in hunger is less than that of poverty –Asia set to convincingly surpass MDG income poverty target, while may not meet the target for undernourished. Policy implications – should Asia move from $1 a day as a measure to indicate extreme poverty or to a higher standard?

Poverty and Hunger Pattern of growth and poverty reduction –Growth focusing on rural areas and agriculture have had the maximum impact on poverty (Chaudhuri and Ravallion 2006) –Had growth been more balanced (sectors and rural-urban) then the overall reduction of poverty would have been faster in China and India.

Caste and Poverty Two papers: broader one focusing on social exclusions in general and another one focusing on the caste system in India. Both study implications of social exclusions on growth through distortions of access to human and physical capital and other resources; labor market distortions etc. They also point out implications for poverty. (For example, in India 35.4% of rural SC households were in poverty in compared to 21% others. In urban areas, 39% vs 15%). Some issues: 1.Quantification of implications for growth of these distortions would be very helpful 2.As improvements are taking place in reduction of social exclusions need to quantify this and whether this is appropriate or not more effectively. For example, Poverty among SC households declined from 59% in to 35% in in rural areas; while overall drop in poverty in rural areas was from 45% to 27%. How long will it take given current trends to achieve convergence and is this wait acceptable? 3.What policies should be pursued? Targeting basic services to SC households seem important – what is the efficiency of such schemes and how have they fared? 4.Implications for ADB: How to better factor these in our operations.

Women and Poverty Paper shows that women’s empowerment determines (i) their own nutritional status; (ii) that of their children – important implication for MDG achievement – focus on womens’s health and their empowerment will impact on 4 MDGs (hunger, infant and child mortality, maternal mortality, gender equality). One major issue: MDGs should specifically establish a target for women’s empowerment.