ABSTRACT
Financial, political, administrative and statistical biases contained in many official surveys may further obscure the bottom end of the poverty picture. The factor contributing to the problem is a general lack of interest among big development agencies in the impact of their work on poverty. Indicators of health and nutritional status to determine the incidence of stunting and wasting have proven useful in determining the effects of poverty on children. The reality of poverty cannot be captured in statistical household surveys or bizarre calculations of 'the energy expended for the function of human organs when a person is in a state of absolute rest'. Poverty imposes a particularly heavy burden on rural women because of their dual role in the economy — both inside and outside the home. The rural sector contains most of the poverty, and most of the low-cost sources of potential advance; but the urban sector contains most of the articulateness, organization and power.
