Concept and method of ascertaining assets of rural households

Assets, in general, refer to a wide range of movable and immovable physical properties and intangible store of values that can be mobilized and monetized at the time of need. This concept of asset has been widened, especially after economic globalization, and includes a number of intangibles like, intellectual property rights, claims on national and international communities etc. In a sense, the BPL card, SC/ST/OBC certificates are also may be considered as assets of the poor or backward community in the existing Indian socio-political environment, because all these give the holders some special opportunities and access to resources. But these are never been considered in any estimation of individuals’ assets. Land, the most precious asset of any rural household, also becomes now a critical as well as a sensitive issue in India. As a result, for a proper assessment of the household's land and other assets necessitate a new approach which has been proposed in this study. Again, personal goodwill is never been considered earlier as asset of an individual. In this study personal goodwill is classified into various kinds and with empirical illustrations it tries to establish as an important intangible asset of the household, particularly of the poor households because it acts as the only resource at the time of their utter crisis.