Villagers' perception of PRA through the mapping technique of RRA

This report describes the use of mapping in studying villagers' perception of poverty in two Indian villages. A clear description is given of the method, by which the villagers worked on understanding the basis of the ranking, identified the poor households in the village, ranked them and discuused the whole process. It is unclear whether the villagers were involved in the identification of criteria for the ranking, but these criteria included, living conditions, and assets. Most interesting is the inclusion of a concept of "access" in the ranking criteria - access to food, employment, public services and common property resources. These made for variations useful to the villagers themselves. In addition this concept of "access" is important in any attempt to include gender in a poverty stratification.