Monitoring Poverty in Uttar Pradesh: A Report on The Second Poverty and Social Monitoring Survey (PSMS-II) Joint Report June, 2006

Abstract

The Uttar Pradesh Poverty and Social Monitoring System (UP PSMS) was established by the Government of Uttar Pradesh (GoUP) in 1999, under the direction of the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), Planning Department. A broad set of economic and social monitoring indicators (measures of economic growth and poverty, as well as human development outcomes, access to basic services and antipoverty programs, and measures of consumer awareness and satisfaction) was agreed upon at the outset of the project, and a special purpose module (Poverty Module) was added to the state sample of the 55th Round National Sample Survey (NSS) to measure these indicators. The first survey (henceforth PSMS-I) was completed between February and June 2000. Drawing upon the salient findings of PSMS-I, in October 2002 DES prepared a baseline report on poverty and living conditions, which painted a broad picture of the status of the poor in Uttar Pradesh. PSMS-I report was widely disseminated and discussed throughout Uttar Pradesh, within the government as well as outside of it. The second, survey (henceforth PSMS-II) entailed adding a similar module to the 58th and 59th rounds of the state samples NSS and was completed in 2002—03. Both PSMS rounds were administered to large samples of households that were representative of the UP state as a whole, as well as for the rural and urban areas, and the “NSS regions” separately.