Chapter 2 focuses on the indicators of social sustainability basing alternatively on absolute or relative deprivation of people’s opportunities of consumption, or on the extent of attainment of human capability, enabling people to access a decent life. It has traced the relationship between deprivation—in both absolute and relative sense—and social tension conceived as social welfare loss according to some social welfare function, which underlies any indicator of development. After reviewing briefly the comparative state of inequality-adjusted level of development across developing countries, the chapter focussed on the analysis of the state of poverty, inequality, and measure of social tension (based on poverty gap or Gini coefficient) for the rural and urban sectors separately using the Indian state-level data to assess the state of social sustainability of the Indian economic system.
Towards a Theory of Self-Segregation as a Response to Relative Deprivation: Steady-State Outcomes and Social Welfare