CUP214 | Understanding Poverty and Inequality

Poverty and inequality are the biggest global challenges being faced and collectively addressed by the government and non-governmental organizations, both nationally and internationally.

Poverty is the most visible characteristic of Underdevelopment and is responsible for many social policy issues and bottlenecks. The goal of ‘ending poverty in all its forms’ is also enshrined as the first objective of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and SDG 10 is on reducing inequalities as it harms poverty reduction and threatens long-term development objectives.

Concepts in poverty and inequality are studied from different perspectives, including both theoretical and empirical approach. At the same time, they are also highly policy-relevant themselves. This proposed course will introduce participants to selected topics in research on poverty and inequality, which are essential for any attempt to meet this challenge of poverty eradication, including questions of measurement, analysis, conceptual integration, available data, and their limitations, as well as the policy context of poverty measures. The course provides insights on the conceptual issues, measurement issues, global trends, policy issues and varied lens to poverty and its eradication.

Using the lecture-based pedagogical approach, the course will demand the active participation of students in terms of before-hand preparation of the reading material for an interactive classroom experience.