Impact of railway existence on poverty in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Poverty is an issue of major concern in Sri Lanka, from both the economic and social perspectives. Focusing on the transportation sector in Sri Lanka, this study focuses on exploring the relationship between poverty and the existence of a railway transportation system as a possible nexus that can affect the level of poverty in the country. In order to measure railway existence, the district-wise number of passenger trips and number of railway stops have been considered. The poverty headcount index as of 2016 has been used to measure poverty in all districts of Sri Lanka as a standard, and the number of rail passenger trips and number of railway-stops for year 2016 have been received from Sri Lanka Railways headquarters. The dependent variable was the poverty head count index and the independent variables were number of rail passenger trips and number of railways stops. Simple and multiple linear regressions were run. It was found that there was a statistically significant negative relationship between the district-wise number of railways stops and the poverty headcount index in Sri Lanka. It was also found that the district-wise number of passenger trips did not have a statistically significant relationship with the district-wise poverty headcount index.