Development and Poverty Assessment Using an Alternate Non-compensatory Composite Index of Rajasthan State in India

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to measure diverse perspectives of development and poverty using an alternate non-compensatory composite index denoted as Mazziotta–Pareto Index (MPI). The study identifies the critical districts of the Rajasthan state, which is the largest state of India with lots of diversity. The index facilitates linear aggregation and introduces penalties for unbalance values in the index in both positive as well as negative phenomena. Region specific dimension and indicators selected for the study highlights the socio-economic status, infrastructure, health care facilities, literacy and employment conditions in different districts. MPI results in the form of rankings, cluster maps and radial charts, classify all the districts in five ranks according to the combined performance in both the phenomena. The results highlights that districts Pratapgarh, Dungarpur, Banswara, Dhaulpur and Jaisalmer situated in south, northeast and west border of the state are falling in the category of low development and high poverty conditions, whereas districts Jaipur (capital of state) and Kota from south eastern region are the best performing districts of the state with high development and low poverty conditions. Further, important factors for each class are highlighted from indicator and sub-indices radial charts. Overall, the present research generates a case study results for preliminary application of an alternate index MPI in district level vulnerability mapping to strengthen the decentralized approach in policy reforms. The further detail study is suggested to bring out area specific policy interventions to overcome spatial disparities in the state.