This paper calculates select urban inequality and poverty indices and finds their policy linkages. In addition, the determinants of urban poverty and inequality are estimated by using data of 52 large cities in India. The main results show that higher city economic growth and large city population agglomeration are associated with reduction in city poverty and increase in inequality between cities.

The paper investigates the ageing situation in India and the development of the government initiatives for the welfare of senior citizens. It also presents the initial results of a survey that the author conducted in 2011 in North Delhi. The main features related to ageing in India are 'feminisation', 'rurality' and 'poverty'. The survey in North Delhi reveals the differences between the male and the female senior citizens, and the vulnerability of the latter, in particular. The social security coverage such as pensions and health insurance was found quite limited among the respondents.

Children ( under 15 years of age) growing up in poor and/or nutritionally deprived households also live with a number of layers of deprivations that stifle their freedom to actively participate in and benefit from elementary school education. Lack of health care, limited access to quality schooling and opportunity cost of participation in education are some of these layers. Human Development Report 2010, using Oxford University’s newly developed Multidimensional Poverty Index, adds more dimensions to poverty measures over and above those of the Indian Planning Commission’s (2009) new measure or absolute poverty used in this paper. These enrich our understanding but do not directly deal with children growing up in absolute poverty and nonparticipation in schooling. This issue can be meaningfully explored with household as the unit of analysis. The paper uses household level data for 2004–05 (NSS 61st Round) and 1993–94 (NSS 50th Round) for India and also major states to analyze these issues. We start with the size of child population, changing share of states and uneven demographic transition in India (particularly the movement in Total Fertility Rates across Indian states) during 1961–2001. Changes in the number of children and the household size in very-poor, poor, non-poor low income and nonpoor high income households from 1993–94 to 2004–05 are analyzed within the crosssections and also between the two cross-sections. Participation in education, and nonparticipation separated as child labor and Nowhere (neither in schools nor in labor force) by poverty status at the all-India and the state levels are reported and commented upon. Changes in magnitudes & proportions of children in poverty in India and across states during 1993–94 & 2004–05 are presented and the share of some states in these magnitudes is highlighted. The determinants of non-attendance in schools (i.e. child being in the labor force or ‘no-where’) for 5–14 year olds are analyzed using formal econometric models — Probit with binary variables and also Multinomial Logit Models. The results are robust and confirm our descriptive analysis. Finally, broad features of The Free and Compulsory Elementary Education Act, 2009 (Law w.e.f. April, 2010) are reported and linked to the policy implications of our empirical findings for meaningful implementation of the Elementary Education Law. Potential usefulness of Unique ID in delivery of child focused services and monitoring is also highlighted. EL Classification Codes : I21, J11, J13, J16, J22,