Deepa Narayan
Indian social scientist and author known for research on poverty, empowerment, and gender. A former senior advisor at the World Bank, she led the Voices of the Poor studies and the multi-volume Moving Out of Poverty, and wrote Chup: Breaking the Silence About India’s Women.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Moving Out Of Poverty
Based on thousands of life stories from diverse countries, this study explores how households rise from and fall back into poverty, emphasizing the dynamic and local nature of mobility. It finds that initiative, access to education, credit, markets, infrastructure, and supportive local institutions drive upward movement, while corruption, social exclusion, conflict, and weak governance are major barriers. Arguing that economic growth alone is insufficient, it calls for policies that strengthen accountability, expand opportunities, and build people’s assets, capabilities, and voice.
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2. Chup
Breaking the Silence About India's Women
A compassionate, evidence-based exploration of why women and girls remain silent about abuse and harassment, blending survivors’ testimonies with social-science analysis to show how shame, fear, economic dependence, family and community pressures, and institutional failures perpetuate violence and isolation—and offering practical strategies and policy recommendations for supporting survivors, changing social norms, and preventing further harm.