A two-part study of rural poverty was carried out in 1997-98 in south and eastern Uttar Pradesh and north and central Bihar. This study utilized both qualitative methods - rapid rural appraisal (RRA) & participatory rural appraisal (PRA) methodologies, and semi-structured interviews - as well as quantitative methods drawing on data collected from household and community surveys modelled after the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys.
The data being distributed are from the quantitative component of the study, field work for which was carried out between December 1997 and March 1998. Data were collected through household and village-level questionnaires in 120 villages drawn from a sample of 25 districts in UP and Bihar states; a total of 2,250 households were interviewed during the course of the survey (more details on distribution of the sample are provided in the sampling section of this note). Of the sample of 120 villages where the household and village surveys were conducted, 30 had been visited in the earlier qualitative component of the study, while the remaining 90 were drawn at random from the sample districts.