South Asia Inequality Review

Inspired by the path-breaking IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities (2019-24) and the Latin America & Caribbean Inequality Review (LACIR), the South Asia Inequality Review is an independent, scholarly initiative that will bring an incisive and comprehensive lens to one of the world’s most populous and diverse regions, documenting trajectories and causes of socio-economic inequalities.  

South Asia presents a striking paradox: decades of rapid economic growth and falling income poverty coexist with some of the world’s deepest human-development shortfalls and stark inequalities by gender, caste, region and group identity. Why has prosperity failed to translate into broad-based gains, and what will it take to reverse this high-inequality equilibrium?  The Review aims to document these inequalities and set an agenda for understanding their causes.  

With regional and international scholars the Review will contribute research articles, assemble new harmonized data sets and synthesize the evidence in a publicly accessible Evidence Volume and Policy Synthesis Report. A series of public dialogues—held in Dhaka, Delhi, Kathmandu and Colombo—will connect research to reform agendas across the region. 

By providing a rigorous, panoramic picture of inequality and its roots, the South Asia Inequality Review will equip policymakers and civil-society leaders with the analysis needed to convert South Asia’s extraordinary growth into genuinely shared prosperity.