Covid-19 and some contours of India’s ongoing agrarian crisis

Human Geography ◽

10.1177/1942778620985194 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 194277862098519

Author(s):

Shantanu De Roy ◽

C. Saratchand

Keyword(s):

Public Procurement ◽

The Political ◽

Policy Initiative ◽

Rural Employment ◽

Food Grains ◽

Rural Producers ◽

Agrarian Crisis ◽

Employment Guarantee

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an aggravation of the agrarian crisis in India. The rural proletariat, poor peasants, and a section of middle peasants in India have been adversely affected. The paper advances a composite policy initiative to deal with this aggravation of the agrarian crisis involving an expansion of the existing rural employment guarantee schemes, various input subsidies to farmers, universal provision of safety gear for rural producers, and an expanded public procurement of food grains. It concludes with the political prognosis of the proposed composite policy initiative.

Download Full-text

All Politics is ‘Local’?

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190608309.003.0003 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Rob Jenkins ◽

James Manor

Keyword(s):

Local Government ◽

Political Representation ◽

The Political ◽

Complex Interplay ◽

Rural Employment ◽

Block Level ◽

Multiple Levels ◽

Employment Guarantee ◽

Panchayati Raj ◽

The Village

This chapter examines the complex interplay between the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) and the multiple levels of political representation that comprise India's system of local government, known as panchayati raj, which includes elected councils at the village, block, and district levels. The analysis of the politics of NREGA implementation assesses the roles played by both politicians and administrators operating at each of these three levels. These interactions are assessed through an examination of three NREGA-related processes: (1) the increased power and resources of elected local councils, and the consolidation of power within these councils by their leaders; (2) the rationing of work opportunities, and the political logic behind the exclusion of certain groups; and (3) the struggles between village- and block-level actors over opportunities to engage in corruption.

Download Full-text

The Political Economy of Implementing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in India

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2386624 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

The Political ◽

Rural Employment ◽

Employment Guarantee ◽

Employment Guarantee Scheme

Download Full-text

Act of Creation

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190608309.003.0002 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Rob Jenkins ◽

James Manor

Keyword(s):

The Political ◽

Rural Employment ◽

The Media ◽

Employment Programs ◽

Employment Guarantee ◽

Intense Debate

This chapter provides a close examination of specific provisions found in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA). The analysis of the legal and regulatory provisions (the content) is followed by an examination of how NREGA came into being (its origins). The focus, again, is on the politics underlying this process. The chapter stresses the importance of India's precursor employment programs and various movements that have over the years worked to make them more accountable to their intended beneficiaries. It also assesses aspects of NREGA that became matters of intense debate on the floor of parliament, in the media, and beyond. Each of these contested legislative provisions would subsequently, in one form or other, play a role in the political battles surrounding NREGA's implementation (a subject covered in Chapter 7 of the book).

Download Full-text

NREGA’s Impact on the Material Well-Being and Political Capacity of Poor People

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190608309.003.0006 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Rob Jenkins ◽

James Manor

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

The Political ◽

Poor People ◽

Political Capacity ◽

Political Awareness ◽

Rural Employment ◽

Political Implications ◽

Material Benefits ◽

Employment Guarantee ◽

Severe Shortage

This chapter assesses the positive political impacts of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) on poor and marginalized people. Two types of impacts are distinguished: those stemming primarily from the material benefits derived by NREGA workers (increased incomes, less dependence on elites), and those that contribute to their “political capacity”, the severe shortage of which has constituted an important dimension of their “poverty”.The authors define political capacity as an amalgam of political awareness, confidence, skills and connections. To advance these claims, the chapter discusses the uses to which laborers put their wages, NREGA's impact on distress migration by poor people, the gains made by women, examples of unusual alliances through participation in NREGA works, and the political implications of all of these processes.

Download Full-text