Urban chronic poverty in Vijayawada : insights from household profiles over time

Abstract

The core purpose of this study was to get the narratives of the poor households recording their experience of poverty and the constraints they faced in pursuing livelihood strategies. The method was to visit and to revisit the same households over a decade in slums of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh in south India. An in depth study was done wit h eight households in 1993, 1997 and 2002. Chronic poverty reduces possibilities for investments the poor can make in their children's future by educating them. They continue to be low skilled and without any hope of improving on their lives. The 'culture of poverty' continues to rule their fate