Though literature on issues relating to poverty are plenty in India, studies based on a first hand knowledge about the living condi tions of the poor are conspicuous by its absence. This book is an exception to this as the author himself undertook the painstaking field work among the poor households in a Kerala Village. This has enriched the author in painting the various facets of poverty among the rural labour households. The volume begins with a brief introduction and the evolution of package of programmes for poverty eradication in the country since the inception of planning. In this background the author examines the socio economic status of poor, their levels of social development, living conditions and survival strategies. The status and impact of IRDP, the core of the poverty intervention programmes in the country is subjected to a critical review with reference to the experiences of the households. The significant role of women in the poor households and their problems too forms the subject matter of this volume. Based on the various empirical obser vations the author comes to the conclusion that poverty intervention programmes made only a peripheral impact on the problem in the countryside. The irony is that this is not because of the lack of adequate resource alloca tion but because of the failure of the delivery mechanism and the weak planning process. In the light of these observations a long term and short strategy for eradicating poverty is also spelt out in the volume.