PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 3 Villages' perceptions of rural poverty through the mapping methods of PRA

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 3 Villages' perceptions of rural poverty through the mapping methods of PRA Neela Mukherjee Summary tool to reflect the complexities and field realities of poverty. Villagers' perceptions of rural poverty and the official poverty line to identify poor Background households may or may not converge in practice. For villagers, poverty is much more There are standard indicators of poverty on the than a mere demarcation of poor households basis of which a certain line is drawn and a by a poverty line based on money income. As household is classified as either poor or not a policy issue it is important to bridge the gap poor. This is related to the definition of between the official poverty line and the poverty on the basis of relative indicators villagers' description of poverty since the which is different from measuring poverty latter group constitutes the clienteles of which seeks to aggregate the amount of poverty alleviation programmes. Their views poverty into a single statistic 1. This paper is will affect how such programmes work. concerned with relative poverty as perceived and described by the villagers and their In this study the Participatory Rural Appraisal ranking of ...