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Education and Development in a Global Era:Strategies for ‘Successful Globalisation’Table 3.4 Comparable Rates of Growth of Fractile Specific Real Monthly Per CapitaConsumption Expenditure, Rural and Urban, IndiaRuralUrbanBottom 40% Next 40% Top 20% Bottom 40% Next 40% Top 20%1977-78 to 1987-88 1.43 1.16 0.01 1.53 1.31 1.571986-87 to 1995-96 1.54 0.67 0.65 1.29 1.21 1.371987-88 to 1999-20000.78 0.73 1.41 1.02 1.48 2.881989-90 to 2000-01 0.21 0.24 1.76 1.03 1.87 3.22Source: Sen and Himanshu, 2004NB: Economists in India use rates of per capita consumption rather than per capita income asmore reliable estimates of inequality.Additonal studies on consumption patterns show that for the bottom 80% of the ruralpopulation, nearly 600 million people, per capita food consumption has actually declined since1989-90. Their consumption is lower than what it was more than ten years ago (Deaton andDreze, 2002; Patnaik, 2003).). The decline in consumption and increase in malnutrition of thepopulation is attributed to the decline in food crop production, especially the negative growthin production of coarse cereals and pulses that are the staple diet of the poor (Deaton andDreze, 2002). Inequality research in the post reform period also shows that the incidence ofrural poverty is higher than urban poverty, but the increase in urban inequality is more dramaticthan the increase in rural inequality (Jha, 2004).According to proponents of ‘Kuznets curve’ (see Introduction) inequality is expected to increasein the early phase of economic liberalisation, but Deaton and Dreze (2002) argue that this isnot a short term trend and point to China’s inability to control rising inequality even after morethan twenty years of market reforms.UnemploymentThe absolute numbers of unemployed have increased from 22% in 1992 to 30% in 2002(World Bank, 2004a). The official figure of 9.2% (GoI, 2004) accounts for only thoseregistered with employment exchanges. The gap between daily status unemployment rate andusual status unemployment rate has increased with the second significantly higher than the first.This indicates an increase in casual and short-term employment among the labour force.Youth self-employment rates (15-24 years) show a substantial increase and may be thecombined effect of the decline in organised sector jobs and the government’s new policy ofspecial loans for youth for micro-enterprises.Interstate disparitiesThe disparity between ‘forward’ states and ‘backward’ states, that is, states whose state domesticproduct (SDP) is above the national average and states with SDP significantly below thenational average, has increased in the reform period as indicated by the Gini coefficient110 DFID