Construction of gender sensitive poverty line based on local perception: Evidence from Habra-II Block of West Bengal state in India

Abstract

This study employs participatory well-being ranking (PWBR) exercise with men and women separately for generating gendered poverty line in Habra-II Block of West Bengal state of India. Men and women differ in a number of themes related to the experience of poverty. We quantify the gender disaggregated qualitative information collected through PWBR from eight village segments to arrive at poverty lines, followed by the generation of poverty statistics. Women and men differ in a number of themes related to poverty. Women use land, house type, dependent in the family, occupation and infrastructure to characterize poor households, and men use sanitation, business, land holding, farming, and occupations for the same. The differential gender perception results in different poverty lines and poverty statistics for men and women in most of the study villages. For most of the study villages women generated higher number of below poverty line households than men.