Top-up

This chapter covers a range of issues that do not fit in earlier chapters. These include urban poverty, universal basic income, the Gujarat model, electoral politics, India's bullet train, the economics of corruption, the aberrations of the caste system, and India's disastrous experience with demonetisation in late 2016. The book concludes with an extended essay on “Development and Public‐spiritedness”. This essay takes issue with the notion, common in economics, that people generally act out of self‐interest. This assumption has no theoretical or empirical basis. Public‐spiritedness, in the sense of a reasoned habit of consideration for the public interest, is a common feature of social life. Expanding the scope of public‐spiritedness is an important aspect of social development.

War and Peace

This chapter is concerned with the abolition of violence, or at least of armed conflict, as an aspect of social development. While nuclear strategists pride themselves on being “realists”, their realism is collectively self‐defeating and creates a dangerous world where minor conflicts could easily escalate into a nuclear war. The chapter exposes the logical fallacies of “mutually assured destruction” and related doctrines, as well as the illusions behind India's “nuclear deal” with the United States. Two essays deal with the Kashmir conflict. In 2016, a massive popular uprising took place in Kashmir, mainly in the form of an extended general strike. This event, however, was barely reported in the mainstream Indian media, except for occasional reports of stone pelting. A first‐hand account of the strike brings out that the real purpose of India's massive military presence in Kashmir is to control the civilian population and suppress all protests, however peaceful.

Child Development and Elementary Education

This chapter focusses on early child care and school education. Two essays discuss India's schooling system, drawing on the seminal Public Report on Basic Education (known as PROBE report) as well as on a re‐study of the PROBE villages ten years later, in 2006. This re‐study found evidence of rapid improvement in schooling facilities as well as in school participation, especially among underprivileged groups. However, there was no improvement in classroom activity: in both surveys, half of the sample schools were idle at the time of the investigators’ visit. The other essays in this chapter discuss the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), India's only national programme for children under the six, in a rights perspective. In the mid‐2000s, far‐reaching Supreme Court orders gave a new lease of life to ICDS. Further improvement in this programme, it is argued, could make a big difference to the well‐being and future of Indian children.

Health Care

This chapter discusses the dismal state of health care in India and the scope for change. Drawing on a wealth of survey data, it brings out the gaping deficiencies of public health facilities as well as India's poor health outcomes. In fact, India's health indicators do not compare favourably with those of Bangladesh or even Nepal, in spite of India's much higher per‐capita GDP and faster GDP growth. Of course, some Indian states (notably Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Himachal Pradesh) have made health care a priority and, correspondingly, forged ahead in terms of health indicators. Recent evidence also suggests significant progress in this field in other states, including some—like Bihar—that have a long record of poor governance.

Poverty

This chapter discusses various aspects of poverty measurement in India, from a practical point of view. It argues against the official practice of “BPL targeting”, whereby social programmes are aimed at households below the poverty line. India's poverty line is really a destitution line, there is no simple way of identifying those who are below it, and BPL targeting is also divisive. The poverty line is best treated as a statistical benchmark for purposes of making poverty comparisons rather than as an eligibility criterion for social benefits. The chapter also includes an essay on social security pensions for widows, the elderly, and disabled persons. Recent evidence suggests that pension schemes in India are doing relatively well—there is a strong case for expanding their coverage, as well as for raising the pension amounts.

Drought and Hunger

This chapter presents first‐hand accounts of drought and hunger in different parts of India in the early 2000s. It begins with a general discussion of the drought situation, and of the government's misguided response to it. The accumulation of gigantic food stocks in the early 2000s, in the name of food security, aggravated hunger instead of relieving it. The chapter discusses the possibility of alternative relief policies and also makes a case for permanent social security measures backed by legal rights. Some of these measures, such as school meals and employment guarantee, did see the light of day later on.

Corporate Power and Technocracy

This chapter scrutinises the growing influence of corporate power on public policy in India. The opening essay discusses a startling case of attempted invasion of child nutrition programmes by commercial interests: in 2008, the biscuit industry used devious means to lobby for the replacement of cooked midday meals in Indian schools with biscuit packets. The attempt failed, but similar efforts continue to this day. Corporate interests also loom large on the annual Union Budget, as discussed in the second essay. The rest of this chapter is largely concerned with Aadhaar, India's attempt to give everyone a unique identity number linked with his or her biometrics. The official purpose of Aadhaar is to reduce corruption in social programmes, but a more plausible reading is that social programmes have been used to fast‐track Aadhaar enrolment. Whatever its initial or intended purpose, the Aadhaar project is increasingly driven by the personal data business.

Food Security and the Public Distribution System

This chapter discusses India's National Food Security Act (NFSA), with a special focus on the public distribution system (PDS). The PDS had a very poor record until recently, but is now improving significantly in many states. In north India, Chhattisgarh took the lead by initiating a series of PDS reforms in the mid‐2000s, with impressive results. Similar reforms were initiated later on in many other states. Even the reformed PDS is far from perfect, but it does protect millions of rural households from hunger and food insecurity. Recent evidence from the National Sample Survey also suggests that the PDS has a substantial impact on poverty. The NFSA is an opportunity to extend PDS reforms across the country and put the PDS on a new footing.

Employment Guarantee

This chapter consists of five essays on India's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Two essays make the case for NREGA as a step towards the right to work, and responds to the critics. The third essay discusses the ground realities of corruption in NREGA, and how it can be prevented. The fourth essay draws attention to problems related to the timely payment of NREGA wages. The concluding essay discusses the productive value of NREGA works and the learning value of the implementation process. The chapter draws on a series of field surveys of NREGA in different Indian states, conducted with student volunteers over the years.

School Meals

This chapter makes the case for free midday meals in Indian schools. School meals have wide‐ranging social benefits. First, they help to ensure regular school attendance. Second, they contribute to better child nutrition. Third, midday meals help to impart egalitarian values among children, who learn to sit together and share a meal irrespective of caste and class. Fourth, India's school meal programme is a major source of employment for poor rural women, and also helps other women to join the workforce by liberating them from the burden of having to prepare lunch for their children. All this, of course, depends on midday meals meeting adequate quality standards. In that respect, one recent breakthrough in many Indian states is the inclusion of eggs in school meals. Alas, this is being resisted in some states under the influence of upper‐caste vegetarian lobbies.