DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2017.v05i08.030

Pages: 1012-1019

Should we consider only relative measure or absolute measure also in estimating economic inequality? Many researchers raise objection against two widely and conveniently used relative measures of inequality – the Gini coefficient and Lorenz curve. Many of them argue that both relative and absolute measures of inequality should be given equal importance in judging the real nature of inequality. This paper tries to take up this debate and to estimate the trends and patterns of inequality by considering both relative and absolute inequality in Lorenz-Gini family in rural and urban India and its major states from 1983 to 2011-12. This paper also tries to introduce the estimates of trends and patterns of combined inequality for India and its major states for the same period by combining the rural and urban sectors together. The estimates of relative and absolute inequality give contradictory trends in India and its states in some years. Thus, this paper proposes that we should always consider both relative and absolute measures simultaneously in inequality consideration.