Child Deprivation Indicators (CDIs): A new way to measure child poverty in urban China

Abstract

In recent decades, the deprivation approach to measuring poverty has been widely adopted around the world for its advantages over the conventional income approach. However, it has attracted little attention in China. This study is a response to this situation. Using data from the <i>Family and Children Survey of Beijing in 2011</i>, the authors construct a child poverty measure – child deprivation indicators (CDIs) – in the Chinese context. Using the CDIs, authors depicted a snapshot of child deprivation in Beijing and explored the association between income poverty measures and the CDIs. The findings indicate that around 12.7% of children in Beijing suffer from deprivation. The CDIs and income poverty measures are closely linked, although the overlap between them is not perfect. One suggestion is to use income and deprivation measures in concert to produce in-depth, comprehensive and practice-friendly data relating to the issue of child poverty.