INCIDENCE OF POVERTY AND LEVEL OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION IN INDIA.

The present paper aims to analyze the spatial variations in the incidence of poverty and level of deprivation in India. The causal relationship between poverty rate (dependent variable) and twenty five selected socio-economic variables (independent variables) of deprivation has been also taken into account. The state/union territory has been taken as the smallest unit of study. The entire research work is based on secondary sources of data. The study reveals that the level of poverty is low in northern and southern states of India, and it is high in central-eastern states extending from the state of Maharashtra in the west to the state of Bihar in the east. The level of deprivation is high in the states extending from Rajasthan in the west to Orissa in the east, medium level in the southern, north-western and north-eastern states and it is low in the northern and southern most states of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]