ABSTRACT
The survey revealed many interesting aspects of income distribution. Facts investigated include a household’s total monthly income, where it was earned, how much of it came from different sources and the characteristics of the recipients. Keeping this in mind, household income from different sources was calculated and the results are shown in Table 3.1. Table 3.1 reveals that average monthly household income of chronically poor was 73 per cent lower than that of non-poor households, while it was 56 per cent and 34 per cent lower than that of ascending poor and descending non-poor households respectively. The average monthly income of descending non-poor and ascending poor households was also 59 per cent and 38 per cent lower than that of non-poor households. Thus there is a considerable disparity in income between the economic classes. Differences in productive assets, educational attainment, job opportunity, occupation and ability appear to be the main causes of income differentials. Chronically poor households are the most vulnerable in rural areas. These households have less education, a poor asset base, severe food insecurity, weak social networks and work in lowpaying jobs. As a result, their income is very low compared to other groups.
