Showing papers in "Economic and Political Weekly in 2008"

Employment growth in rural India : distress driven?

Abstract: The 61st round (2004-05) of the National Sample Survey showed that there was a turnaround in employment growth in rural India after a phase of jobless growth during the 1990s. Paradoxically, this employment growth occurred during a period of widespread distress in the agricultural sector with low productivity, price instability and stagnation leading to indebtedness. This paper reveals that employment growth in the rural areas was probably a response to the income crisis that is gripping farming. Under conditions of distress, when income levels fall below sustenance, then the normally non-working population is forced to enter the labour market to supplement household income. The decline of the agricultural sector has also probably created forced sectoral and regional mobility of the working population, with the non-working population complementing them.

Analysis of new legal discourse behind Delhi's slum demolitions

Abstract: A discourse analysis of court documents in slum-related cases from the past 25 years leads to the conclusion that the basic statement that "slums are illegal' is a very recent juridical discourse and the rise of court orders to demolish slums is due to reinterpretation of nuisance law. The "new nuisance discourse' that arose in the early 2000s re-problematised slums as nuisances and became the primary mechanism by which slum demolitions take place at present.

Slum Demolitions in Delhi since the 1990s: An Appraisal

Abstract: The redevelopment and beautification of the capital for the making of a "world-class city" have entailed a heavy cost in terms of slum demolitions. A survey documenting the change of land use that has taken place on the sites of demolished slum clusters highlights the emerging processes and trends. Some of its findings question the stated principle of the Delhi slum policy, namely, the removal and relocation of squatter settlements only when the land is required to implement projects in the "larger public interest". The preparation for the 2010 Commonwealth Games further provides the urban authorities with an opportune context to "clean up" the city from its slums.

Co-management of electricity and groundwater: an assessment of Gujarat's Jyotirgram Scheme

Abstract: In September 2003, the government of Gujarat introduced the Jyotirgram Yojana to improve rural power supply. Two major changes have since taken place: (a) villages get 24 hour three-phase power supply for domestic use, in schools, hospitals, village industries, all subject to metered tariff; and (b) tubewell owners get eight hours/day of power but of full voltage and on a pre-announced schedule. It has, however, offered a mixed bag to medium and large farmers and hit marginal farmers and the landless. This article offers an assessment of the impact of Jyotirgram, and argues that with some refinements it presents a model that other states can follow with profit.

Agrarian Change and Social Mobility in Tamil Nadu

Abstract: This is a study of social mobility over 25 years in six villages in the former Tiruchirapalli district in Tamil Nadu. The two most important external drivers are local industrialisation and social policy in a broad sense. It is shown that the overall effect seems to be a centripetal tendency in agrarian structure, with a movement towards a strengthened position for family farming and for the underdogs in the old agrarian society to leave agriculture altogether, seeking improved life chances in the non-agrarian economy, both inside the villages and in the wider economy.

Measuring Disability in India

Abstract: Disability status is often transitory or a matter of insidious change. A person’s ability to function properly depends to a considerable extent on her/his social and physical environment. One area that slips through the large-scale studies like the census and National Sample Survey is the impact of the state and the market on the lives of people with disabilities. There is a case for a more fundamental re-envisioning of the nature of the disability estimates. A recent article on disability estimates from the 2001 Census and the 2002 58th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) has concluded that “prevalence estimates in the census and the NSS are clearly not comparable...and it is unsure what aspects of disability are captured by the census and NSS current disability definitions” [Mitra and Sambamoorthi 2006: 4024]. Here we take this argument further: (1) to consider more reasons for caution in using either the census or the NSS for policy purposes; (2) to argue for more qualitative studies of disability; and (3) to consider the identification of disability not merely as a technical issue (does someone have or not have a particular impairment), but also as a political one (what claims are being made by or about someone if they say there is an impairment worthy of public attention).

Soccer ball Production for Nike in Pakistan

Abstract: This paper looks at how Nike’s soccer ball suppliers (previous and current) in Sialkot (Pakistan) fare in relation to the company’s code of ethics. While minimum required working conditions are implemented, the criteria for social and environmental compliance are not met with. The multinational’s decision to withdraw orders from the previous supplier ostensibly due to allegations of child labour and unauthorised subcontracting hit large sections of the workforce, especially rural, low-skilled and female workers. Is it fair for multinationals to cut and run in such cases or should they find a solution to save thousands of livelihoods?

Foreign Ownership and Subsidiary Performance: Impact on Research and Exports?

Abstract: In the mainstream international management literature the issue of the extent to which multinational corporations achieve the outcomes desired by host country stakeholders is yet to receive the attention it deserves. This paper shows that the contribution of mncs in the form of exports and royalties is significantly lower than that of local firms. Insufficient attention to local subsidiary interests may undermine the motivation of subsidiary managers to discover new sources of advantage for the mncs. It may also discourage subsidiary country governments from offering incentives to mncs for inward foreign direct investment.

Employee voice and collective formation in the Indian ITES-BPO industry

Abstract: The growth of the information technology enabled services-business process outsourcing industry calls for attention to employees' working conditions and rights. Can an independent organisation such as unites Pro (the union of information technology enabled services professionals) represent employees' interests and effectively work towards protecting their rights and improving their working conditions? A survey of unites members indicates that they identify with the need for such an organisation to deal with poor supervisory and managerial treatment, concerns for employee safety, grievances related to pay and workload, and even the indignities of favouritism.

On the desecration of Nehru's "temples": Bhilai and Rourkela compared

Abstract: The major steel towns built in the wake of the Second Five-Year Plan were to be “temples” to India’s industrial future and secular “modernity”; but soon they were desecrated by ethnic and communal violence. Focusing on two of them, this article shows that the extent of the violence was markedly different, and asks “why?”. Attention is drawn to the kind of ethnic mix in their workforces, to their different experiences of “modernity”, shop floor cultures and histories of displacement, and to the different agendas of state governments and the way they shaped civil society institutions.

Diversity in Calorie Sources and Undernourishment during Rapid Economic Growth

Abstract: This paper compares the experiences of India and Vietnam in dietary diversity and undernourishment from the early 1990s to the middle of the first decade of the new millennium. Both these countries recorded high economic growth rates and large poverty reductions during the late 1990s following a set of economic reforms. However, while Vietnam recorded large reductions in its undernourishment rates, the reverse was true for India. The Vietnamese, with their intervention programmes aimed at nutrient enhancement, have managed their growth process ensuring a positive association between reduction in expenditure-based poverty and calorie-based under-nutrition, in a manner that has lessons for other high growth achievers such as India.

Democracy versus Economic Transformation

Abstract: Chatterjee sets up a number of structural oppositions but a more insightful and productive understanding of ongoing change would not only dissolve some of these distinctions but also invert some of the attributes of both "civil" and "political" society.

Economic Growth and Regional Inequality in India

Abstract: Given the disparate levels of income and development among the states in India, do they exhibit any tendency in the data to converge to common steady-state paths? In a panel data study for 16 Indian states for the period from 1978-79 to 2002-03, it is found that (a) the states are not converging to identical levels of per capita income in the steady-state; (b) once factors that affect steady-state levels of income are controlled for, the poor states grow faster on average than the rich ones; and (c) there is an increase in the dispersion of per capita incomes across states over time. This is indicative of Indian states converging to increasingly divergent steady-states, which may be attributed to increasing inter-state disparities in levels of private and public investment and an insignificant equalising impact of centre-state government transfers.

Building boomers and fragmentation of space in Mumbai

Abstract: The Maharashtra government has extended the transfer of development rights instrument - a market mechanism originally used to provide public amenities - for constructing houses for project-affected persons. Data indicates that a majority of these townships have come up in a city ward where many of the poor live. In a situation where the real estate market is driven by the profit motive, unregulated use of the TDR has the potential to cause further fragmentation of already socially and economically segregated urban spaces.

Reviewing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme

Abstract: Employment Guarantee programme based on a pilot survey of three villages in Udaipur district in Rajasthan. Its focus is on participation in the nreg programme of different socio-economic groups and the determinants of the participation of these groups. It is found that the mean participation was 59 days and that targeting was satisfactory. The performance of the programme has been far from dismal. has been a spate of comments . mostly critical following an audit of the National Rural Employment Guarantee (henceforth, nreg) programme by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India [cag 2007]. This audit has revealed several weaknesses of this

t he Big March: Migratory Flows after the partition of india

Abstract: Involuntary migrations continue to play an important role in today’s world, with wars and political strife forcing hundreds of thousands to leave their country. Whether it is Rwanda, Bosnia-Yugoslavia, or Israel, people are constantly faced with situations where they have no choice but to flee. The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants estimates a total of 12 million refugees and an additional 21 million internally displaced people in the world [World Refugee Survey 2006]. Yet despite the largescale and costly ramifications of these flows, our empirical under standing of even the very basic questions – such as the size and variability of these flows – remains limited. How many people moved? From where and to where? How did the flows differ across regions? Too many of these questions often remain unanswered.

t he Shift to city- centric Growth Strategies: perspectives from Hyderabad and Mumbai

Abstract: The policy environment in India has undergone radical change in the last 20 years as a result of economic reforms, and not surprisingly the approach to urban development has also been affected There is growing recognition on the part of policy-makers that cities play a crucial role in the national economy, and current policies mark a significant rupture from those followed over the years, some dating back to the 1960s Of particular interest here is the rehabilitation of large cities in the overall approach to urban development, as exemplified by the JNNURM Based on two compelling, though not fully comparable case studies, Hyderabad and Mumbai, this article argues that both the Union and state governments are adopting city-centric growth strategies, following international trends, and that these have far-reaching social and spatial implications and in terms of governance The policy shift calls for a serious re-examination of intergovernmental responsibilities, functions and financial transfers in order to ensure that the larger social issues are included in city strategic planning In both cities, the ongoing processes are contentious and contradictory, providing a stark contrast to the smooth vision statements that convey an image of the quest for "development" as a consensual process

Financial Sector Reforms

Abstract: The draft Raghuram Rajan Committee report is neither fiscalist nor does it recommend that the Reserve Bank of India focus only on inflation targeting ignoring macroeconomic variables, as observed by Lekha Chakraborty (June 21, 2008). This comment criticises Chakraborty's views on solution multiplicity, priority sector loan certificates and asymmetric information and related problems in the context of capital account convertibility.

Gandhigiri in Sikkim.

Abstract: Vibha Arora (aurora@hss.iitd.ac.in) is with the department of humanities and social sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. The indigenous Lepchas of Sikkim are using Gandhian methods of protest to prevent construction of hydel projects that will destroy their land and the environment. At a time when politics has been reduced to a numbers game, they know that their minority status is against them. But they are determined to continue the struggle. In the remote Himalayan state of S ikkim Gandhigiri is being practised as a method of popular democratic protest. The heroic duo, Dawa Lepcha and Tenzing Lepcha broke their indefinite satyagraha on June 13, 2008 after fasting for 96 days at Gangtok in Sikkim.1 These two youth activists broke their fast after a written assurance from the government of Sikkim that it was shelving the four hydel projects in the Dzongu area of north S ikkim. This took place just six days short of the first anniversary of the formal protests launched by the Concerned Lepchas of Sikkim, the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT), and the Sangha of Dzongu against 26 hydel projects at BhutiaLepcha house in Gangtok on June 20, 2007.2 This was not the first time these two brave youth had decided to adopt nonviolent Gandhian methods not only to force the government to listen to their demands and alter its d evelopment policies, but also to ensure that democratic ethos get firmly rooted in contemporary Sikkim. Dawa and Tenzing’s first round of i ndefinite fast lasted 63 days and was called off after they were assured by the government that it would reconsider these projects by forming an independent review committee – a promise that the present democratically elected government of Sikkim did not keep. “Dams over Dzongu will be built over our dead bodies”, proclaimed the banner marking the 200th day on January 6, 2008 of this historic satyagraha. Subsequently on March 10 about 300 Lepchas of Dzongu staged a rally at Gangtok carrying placards and banners demanding an end to all hydel projects in north Sikkim. Preceding this rally, the activists offered prayers at the sacred stones at Kabi on March 7 to galvanise moral support. Dawa Lepcha and Tenzing Lepcha commenced a second round of indefinite fast on March 10, 2008. In April 2008, nearly 100 Lepchas from Kalimpong and Darjeeling commenced a pilgrimage to their holy land, Dzongu but had to abandon it due to a clash with supporters of the project. All these protesting Lepchas are demanding that the government duly recognise the sanctity of the Lepchas’ ancestral roots in Dzongu and the necessity of safeguarding it from greedy capitalism.

Can Community Monitoring improve the Accountability of Public Officials

Abstract: This article discusses the nature and characteristics of monitoring the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’s implementation with a focus on the community control mechanisms existing in the two pioneering states of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. These two states represent two relatively diverse models. Elements of both models need to be incorporated in order to make the process of community control of public programmes effective and sustainable. ublic programmes in most developing countries are notorious for b eing ineffective due to rampant corruption. One of the oft-emphasised mechanisms whereby they can be made effectual is of giving control to local communities in the implementation and monitoring of such schemes. However, evidence on the effectiveness of community control in improving the delivery of public goods and services in developing countries is conflicting. Some recent studies suggest that community monitoring of public pro

Reconfiguring the coast.

Abstract: An enormous amount of funds (government, multilateral and non-government) flowed into the coastal areas hit by the tsunami of December 2004. But what has been the quality of rehabilitation and what lives do the survivors - the fishers - lead? A case study of one village in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu yields disturbing findings about government intervention, NGO activities and the reconfiguring of the coast in the name of development.

Ethnographies of the Global Information Economy: Research Strategies and Methods

Abstract: Globalisation and the increasing complexity of the contemporary world have posed serious methodological problems for sociologists and social anthropologists. This paper discusses new approaches, such as “global

Concentration-Markup Relationship in Indian Manufacturing Sector

Abstract: While the positive relationship between market concentration and price-cost margin or profitability is well documented in industrial organisation literature, the present paper makes an attempt to examine the concentration-markup relationship in Indian manufacturing sector in the post-liberalisation era using dynamic panel data model. It is observed that the traditional positive concentration-markup relationship does not hold in a dynamic context, when controlled for various structural aspects of the market, firms' strategies and policies of the government. In other words, industries with greater market concentration do not necessarily enjoy higher pcm in the long run, possibly due to entry of new firms, x-inefficiency of the incumbents and deceleration in industrial production.

Living with Hunger: Deprivation among the Aged, Single Women and People with Disability

Abstract: The enormity of human deprivation among the vulnerable and destitute is overwhelming. This paper describes the experience of living with hunger as recounted by persons from intensely insecure social groups from eight villages in Orissa, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Although the state has reached people in remote locations occasionally making a crucial difference in the lives of the destitute, this intervention is usually meagre, uncertain and ridden with corruption. However, the grim stories described here are illuminated by dignity, courage and resilience.

Mainstreaming Gender, Engendering Development: Reflections on a Case Study

Abstract: Mainstreaming gender and engendering development has now become a part of feminist and development discourse. This paper is a case study of the mv Foundation, which has implemented its programme of "Empowering Women through Collective Action" in the Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh. It shows how this foundation had consciously and concretely incorporated aspects that have the potential to mainstream gender as well as engender development. It also describes how the foundation identified the most marginalised among the rural population, apprised them of the existing rural and land-based programmes of the government and acted as a catalyst to source these programmes.

Geographies do matter [Review of: S. Raju, M.S. Kumar (2006) Colonial and post-colonial geographies of India]

Abstract: The publication of this book has to be heartily welcomed for its significant contribution to critical geographical work on India. The collection of 15 essays draws on contributions of scholars situated in India, western Europe, and the US. These essays are on different topics and may look very diverse, without a common base. However, the authors have woven a persuasive tapestry around concerns of emergent socio-politico-economic formations in national, urban and rural settings that underlies the connectedness between global and local. The geographically embedded treatment of historical as well as contemporary themes reasserts the reconfigured territorialities and spaces in a (presumably) borderless globalising world. The chapters are as varied as ‘Idioms, Symbolism and Divisions: Black and White Towns in Madras, 1652-1850’ to a discussion of ‘Carbon Colonies, from Local Use Value to Global Exchange in Climatic Forestry’. Each study has a quality and standing of its own. Anyone who is interested in India’s historical and contemporary developments - in India or abroad - will find the approaches interesting and informative.

Untreated morbidity and demand for healthcare in India an analysis of national sample survey data

Abstract: This paper studies the problem of poor health outcomes in India from the demand side, and using the unit level data from the 60th round of the National Sample Survey analyses the determinants of not accessing medical care. This analysis is confined to persons who have reported being ill within 15 days of the survey but have not sought either public or private professional medical services. There are systematic variations in accessing healthcare between urban and rural areas, as well as between males and females in each sector. While in the rural areas, the demand for healthcare increases significantly with the education level of the head of the household, in the urban areas the evidence is mixed. Richer economic sections constitute a larger proportion of sick persons who do not access medical care, especially in urban areas. Paradoxically, among poor households, which cite financial reasons for not accessing healthcare, women are less likely to be discriminated in rural than in urban areas. The linkage between health, nutrition and economic development has been extensively discussed in literature (Strauss and Thomas 1998). The construction of the human development index (HDI) includes life expectancy – the broadest measure of health of the population in a country. Deve loped nations without exception have low maternal and infant mortality, as well as lower rates of malnutrition.

Is higher demand for biofuels fuelling food prices

Abstract: Economic & Political Weekly EPW august 9, 2008 37 the parting of the ways with the left. Its more seasoned members knew that a p­ pearing to be anti­left is not good for its own image. So Manmohan Singh thought of taking the initiative and announcing over the heads of his cabinet colleagues that India was going ahead with the initia­ tive with the IAEA. This resulted in the predictable move of the left. It could not have continued supporting the UPA govern­ ment without sacrificing basic c redibility. It had no option but to quit and quit it did. It did not vote with A or B. It simply took the only way that was open to it, not nec­ essarily a bad thing to happen. Yet it is important to see that it was a C ongress game plan with the quiet b lessing of the A mericans. One need not celebrate or r egret the outcome. One should however record that there was nothing bizarre about it, to use P Chidambaram’s descri­ ption of voting behaviour in the House. So further steps on the nuke deal will be taken fast, credit for the deal would be in the Congress coffers before the new elections are scheduled. Congress will at least have one (what it considers to be) achievement to show. It seems to believe that it will work. It is nevertheless true that the drama over the bribe operations and buying of MPs had all the characteristics of a third rate comedy. That was bizarre except that the finance minister was unwilling to see it. As if that absurd theatre was not enough a member of the central committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) nar­ rated the story of Somnath Chatterji’s re­ quest to get the party nomination for president. (In the event the party had pro­ posed Pranab’s name, he was apparently willing to settle for vice­presidentship.) Nothing worked. Now the reports say that the prime minister has offered him some­ thing. This was when he went to greet Chatterji on his 80th birthday. That i ndeed is bizarre. All this is absurd theatre, except that it is turning out to be tragic.