The Quality of Living Space as an Indicator of Poverty: Insights from Census of India (2011)

Abstract

When an individual or group does not have the necessary means of subsistence, they are said to be in a state of poverty. Real-world living conditions, as indicated in the lack of Quality of Housing space and the availability of basic amenities reveals the true degree of scarcity. Hence, poverty is analysed by taking various indicators of Quality of Living Space into consideration. 10 indicators were selected as per the availability of data from Census of India. Data was analysed by taking district as the unit of analysis and the essential mapping was done using Arc GIS 10.3. Composite index was prepared by find out the z-score and finally concluding on the composite index. Results reveals that some economically poorer states have low level of quality of living space while the economically better off states have better quality of Living Space.