Villagers' perception of rural poverty through the mapping methods of PRA.

This is a study of PRA methods of mapping and ranking that have been used in two Indian villages to study the villagers' perception of rural poverty. The maps were used to help the villagers identify the poor households in the village, rank them, and understand the basis of the ranking process. The ranking procedure takes into account not only living conditions and assets of the household but also their accessibility to food, employment, public services and common property resources. This makes for variations in ranking of poor households which the villagers perceived easily and clearly.