Poverty, Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Manipur

This article makes a humble attempt to examine different forms of social exclusion among several communities in Manipur. Poverty is considered as an important dimension of social exclusion which is closely associated with deprivation and discrimination. Since there are several other dimensions of social exclusions, the present article concentrates to poverty as important dimension of social exclusion among different groups of communities like Scheduled Castes(SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and others. The findings of the study show that poverty prevents participation of individuals and groups in social and economic activities in the developmental process in Manipur. The level of poverty also varies depending on different groups of society viz., SCs, STs, and others. Social exclusion, therefore, is a real problem in the state which leads to deprivation. That the level of poverty contributes to the exclusion process is a manifestation of social exclusion. The study suggests ‘strategy inclusive growth‘ as the means of empowering the disadvantaged group of people with the aim of enabling them to overcome their poverty, deprivation and social exclusion.