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Summary: This paper examines poverty and vulnerability by using a multidisciplinary approach in which household survey data and poverty analysis were applied in interaction with open-ended qualitative research methods. The study uses a variety of quantitative survey-based methods in combination with qualitative Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods to explore key issues concerned with poverty, risk, and vulnerability in some of India’s poorest regions. It documents poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon and the poor as a highly heterogeneous group; efforts to reduced poverty in its many dimensions must recognize this diversity and how it is reflected in constraints and opportunities for rising out of poverty. Poverty reduction policies and programs must be designed accordingly. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]