Conceptualizing social exclusion in the context of India’s poorest regions: a contribution to the Qual-Quant debate Arjan de Haan Department for International Development (UK) Email: A-Dehaan@dfid.gov.uk with statistical analysis by: Amaresh Dubey Click here to download working paper

Abstract
This paper draws on empirical poverty analysis in Orissa, and argues how a notion of social exclusion which focuses on the social relations behind deprivation can enrich the Qual-Quant debate, and through this the poverty analysis that prevails in the international development debate. After an introduction that situates the poverty debate in a broader social science context, and a section that describes the relatively new notion of social exclusion, two sections describe what existing data can tell us about levels of deprivation across India. The paper then moves on to areas where the international poverty debate has remained relatively silent: issues of voice, knowledge and discrimination are not only important aspects of deprivation, but closely linked to the income and other indicators of deprivation and disparity. Through this, the paper argues, we can and need to move from poverty as a residual category, to a better understanding of the societal structures that cause deprivation: not as a residual category.