Capability Failure and Group Disparities : Some Evidence from India for the 1980s

Abstract

This paper advances a particular measure of deprivation - called the Capability Failure Ratio (CFR) - on the dimensions of longevity, knowledge and income, and suggests how an (inequality-) 'adjusted' version of the CFR may be derived. These measurement concerns are explored in the context of relevant State-wise data for the Indian Union. The paper thus makes an attempt to enrich the analysis of human predicament by sensitising 'measures of central tendency' to distributional concerns.Capability Failure, Group Disparities, Income, Measurements, Human Development, Distribution Inequalities, India,

Assessing the ‘Agedness’ of A Population

“…A particularly salient grouping of the population, in the Indian context, is that according to caste. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been the worst victims of India's caste system, and this has been confirmed many times over by evidence on various development indicators for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes and the rest of the population (see, for example, Majumdar and Subramanian, 2001). Agedness indicators would appear to be no exception to the rule, as Table V confirms.…”

Using the Mean of Squared Deprivation Gaps to Measure Undernutrition and Related Socioeconomic Inequalities

“…While relational inequalities are embedded in the social structure in the form of relations of 'superordination' and 'subordination', distributional inequalities allude to interpersonal differences in wealth or income or outcome indicators such as health and educational status (Chakraborty, 2001). Whichever space we deal with, income or important human capabilities, we find a host of studies that dwell on the issue of inequality across various population subgroups within the same geographical area (Anand and Sen, 1995;Subramanian and Majumdar, 2002;Jayaraj and Subramanian, 1999;Majumdar and Subramanian, 2001). Kakwani et al (1997) have discussed how health inequalities can be studied using grouped data, when groups are formed on the basis of socioeconomic status, social class, levels of educational attainment or income.…”

Poverty Measurement in the Presence of a ‘Group‐Affiliation’ Externality

“…Similarly with the other attributes. This method of accommodating multiple individual identities has been employed by Majumdar and Subramanian (2001) in studying group-related disparities in the distribution of well-being in India.…”