The Experience of Poverty: Fighting for Respect and Resources in Village India

This book turns the standard approach to the poor and poverty upside down by focusing not on the weakness of poor people but on their strengths. The author considers how poor people in three villages in West Bengal experience poverty in its many forms, and battle for both resources and respect. This is in contrast to the way the poor are usually represented in aid discussions and in development discourse, as well as local dialogue, which usually influences external intervention to result in a top-down approach to poverty prevention programmes.