Learning From the Poor

While the poor stand out in their poverty and deprivation, they are notable to stand up against the maladies of the systems from which theydraw their sustenance. The power equations at their level are simply notempowering. They need to break many a vicious circle to get into thevirtuous circle of development. DB along with the Government of Indiasupported two phases of participatory poverty assessments in sevenIndian states. The studies were supported by the Department forInternational Development (DFID) and spread across 78 districts and 842locations covering over twenty thousand poor people. Completed in 2005,the studies brought forth a multitude of perspectives on the issue ofpoverty. The synthesis report, Learning from the Poor, cuts across thestudies to highlight common threads that emerge (Asian development bank,10 July 2007) .