Impact of Household Size, Family Composition and Socio Economic Characteristics on Poverty in Rural India

This paper utilises micro data on consumption, family composition and land ownership of nearly 70,000 rural Indian households to analyse poverty. The study combines household level information with State level welfare indicators to examine the impact of household size and composition, caste, sex of head, land ownership and other socio economic characteristics on a household's poverty status. The introduction of consumption economies of household size and of adult/child consumption relativities affect the poverty estimates but not the State poverty rankings. Female headed households, scheduled castes/tribes, and households residing in economically backward and/or expensive States are more vulnerable to poverty than others. The logit regression results point to the positive role that the State governments can play in reducing rural poverty.