Showing papers in "Economic and Political Weekly in 2010"

The impoverishing effect of healthcare payments in India: new methodology and findings.

Abstract: High private healthcare spending as well as high out of pocket spending in India are placing a considerable financial burden on households. The 60th national morbidity and healthcare survey of the National Sample Survey Organisation provides an opportunity to examine the impoverishing effect of healthcare spending in India. This paper presents an analysis of the nsso survey data with some new approaches to correcting some of the biases in previous assessments of the ”impoverishing” effect of health spending. Despite these corrections, the results suggest that the extent of impoverishment due to healthcare payments is higher than previously reported. Furthermore, outpatient care is more impoverishing than inpatient care in urban and rural areas alike. The analysis of the extent of impoverishment across states, regions (urban and rural areas), income quintile groups, and between outpatient care and inpatient care yields some interesting results. I n India, not only is the private healthcare spending much higher than government spending in comparison to what is observed in many developing countries, but also within the private health spending, the share of out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending in India is much higher (Table 1, p 66). The share of OOP in total expenditure on health is the highest in India in comparison to the selected developing countries, except Pakistan. The high share of private healthcare spending, which is mainly OOP spending, reflects on considerable financial burden on households. Indeed, the healthcare costs are believed to be one of the important causes of impoverishment in India – a country that is home to the largest number of the world’s poor. 1

Inequities in Access to Health Services in India: Caste, Class and Region

Abstract: Despite India’s impressive economic performance after the introduction of economic reforms in the 1990s, progress in advancing the health status of Indians has been slow and uneven. Large inequities in health and access to health services continue to persist and have even widened across states, between rural and urban areas, and within communities. Three forms of inequities have dominated India’s health sector. Historical inequities that have their roots in the policies and practices of British colonial India, many of which continued to be pursued well after independence; socio-economic inequities manifest in caste, class and gender differentials; and inequities in the availability, utilisation and affordability of health services. Of these, critical to ensuring health for all in the immediate future will be the effectiveness with which India addresses inequities in provisioning of health services and assurance of quality care. I ndia, over the last two decades, has enjoyed accelerated economic growth, but has fared poorly in human development indicators and health outcomes. Population averages of health status indicators, such as child health and maternal mortality, remain unacceptably high compared with countries in the south and east Asian region that have similar income levels and rates of economic growth. Underlying the low population level indicators, worrisome inequities coincide with the multiple axes of caste, class, gender and regional differences (Deaton and Dreze 2009; Claeson et al 2000; Subramanian et al 2006). In India, an important determinant of socio-economic inequities in nearly all spheres of well-being is caste. The official classi fication defines four categories of caste: scheduled castes ( SCs), scheduled tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), and others. The SCs, the lowest level in the hierarchy, constitute around 16% of the Indian population, a large percentage of who live in rural areas and are landless agricultural labourers. The STs, or adivasis, often like SCs, suffer economic and social deprivation. They comprise around 8% of India’s population. OBCs and forward castes together comprise 76% of India’s total population (RGI 2001).

Empowerment effects of the NREGS on women workers: a study in four states.

Abstract: Using a field survey, this paper examines the empowerment effects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on rural women in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. It argues that women workers have gained from the scheme primarily because of the paid employment opportunity, and benefits have been realised through income-consumption effects, intra-household effects, and the enhancement of choice and capability. Women have also gained to some extent in terms of realisation of equal wages under the nregs, with long-term implications for correcting gender skewness and gender discriminatory wages prevalent in the rural labour market of India. Despite the difficulties and hurdles for women, prospects lie, inter alia, in their collective mobilisation, more so in laggard states.

Women, Work, and Employment Outcomes in Rural India

Abstract: Large-scale surveys show that while rural women’s employment has grown over the decades, women are still largely self-employed or employed as casual labour in agriculture. They face various forms of discrimination, including job-typing that pushes them into low-paying jobs. Higher work participation per se does not lead to better outcomes unless accompanied by higher education, and/or assets. Education may not positively influence a woman’s participation in work, but for women who are in the workforce, education is the most important determinant of better quality non-agricultural work. Women’s autonomy, measured in terms of control over land, mobility, and a willingness to join self-help groups, enables them to move into non-agricultural jobs. The paper argues for policy interventions to increase work opportunities and enhance wages for rural women workers. E mployment is critical for poverty reduction and for enhancing women’s status. However, it is potentially empowering and liberating only if it provides women an opportunity to improve their well-being and enhance their capabilities. On the other hand, if it is driven by distress and is low-paying, then it may only increase a woman’s drudgery. To understand women’s work status in India’s rural areas and to examine the trends and nature of women’s employment, this paper analyses data from large-scale national surveys. It draws on data from the National Sample Surveys (NSS), the National Family Health S urveys (NFHS), and the agricultural census conducted by the ministry of agriculture, as well as other sources of information such as national income data from the Central Statistical O rganisation (CSO). The paper is organised into five sections. Section 1 analyses work participation rates for women by socio-economic characteristics such as caste, religion, education, and economic status. S ection 2 discusses the participation of women in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors and their categorisation by employment status. Section 3 examines some of the correlates of workforce participation including education and poverty. The d eterminants of women’s work participation and the factors that influence their participation in different kinds of employment are explored by means of regression analysis in Section 4. The last section concludes with an overview and suggestions for improving the position of women workers in rural areas. 1 Workforce Participation by Socio-economic

rethinking agricultural production collectivities

Abstract: In the face of persistent rural poverty, an incomplete agrarian transition, the predominance of small and marginal farms and a growing feminisation of agriculture, this paper argues for a new institutional approach to poverty reduction, agricultural revival and social empowerment. It makes a strong case for a group approach to agricultural investment and production by promoting collectivities of the poor which, it argues, would be much more effective on all these counts than the traditional individual-oriented approaches. The collectivities proposed here, however, are small-sized, voluntary, socio-economically homogeneous and participatory in decision-making, in keeping with the principles emphasised in a human rights approach to development. The paper describes a range of successful cases of agricultural production collectivities from the transition economies and south Asia. It also reflects on the contexts in which they may be expected to succeed, and how these efforts could be replicated for wider geographic coverage and impact.

Rethinking inequality: dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the market reform era.

Abstract: In the debates surrounding the consequences of India’s shift from a state-led to a market-oriented economic model, the issue of caste and caste practices, particularly for dalits, has been an empirical weak link. We draw on a unique survey designed and implemented by members of the dalit community to capture social practices and conditions important to them which are not featured in the usual household surveys. This survey asked all dalit households in two blocks of Uttar Pradesh (Azamgarh and Bulandshahar districts) both about conditions currently and in 1990. The survey results suggest that placing exclusive focus on measures of material well-being, such as consumption expenditure and its inequality, is misplaced as it misses important changes in socially structured inequalities and hence in individuals’ functioning.

Understanding the nature and causes of food inflation.

Abstract: The main reason for the current surge in food prices is the supply shock due to the drought in 2009 and the carry-over effect of the low growth of food production in 2008-09. As the frequency of such shocks is expected to rise, India needs to have an effective food management strategy to deal with these episodes. It also needs to explore various other options for price stabilisation like maintaining buffer stocks and using trade. The economy has to invest heavily in expanding storage capacity for various types of foods in both the public as well as private sectors. Due to fluctuations in growth, the export of some commodities in one or two years is followed by their imports, which invariably involves a large variation in costs and prices. As India is a net exporter of food, a part of what is now exported needs to instead become part of domestic stabilisation stocks. Policymakers and administrators seem unable to bring food prices under control. Food inflation, based on the wholesale price index (WPI) for food articles and food products, entered double digits in April 2009 and crossed the 20% level in December. The increase in prices is not restricted to a few commodities, and it is being experienced across the board; the exception being edible oils. Inflation at the retail level, which ultimately is what matters for consumers, is more serious than wholesale prices. At this rate of inflation, Indian consumers are required to spend about 20% more on food compared to the previous year to maintain their consumption level. A large percentage of households in the country is not in a position to raise its food expenditure to neutralise the effect of inflation. This is surely going to aggravate food and nutrition deficiency which remains at a very high level (Deaton and Dreze 2009). The debate on the causes of inflation is full of confusion and most experts do not distinguish between long-run and short-run inflation. While the imbalance between demand and supply is often mentioned as an important factor, an adequate understanding of this imbalance is missing. The long-run implications of the emerging trends in food production have also received little attention. This article looks at the longand short-term changes in food prices in nominal and relative terms and examines how these changes are affected by changes in production and other factors. It also examines the effect of trade in food products on domestic prices and supply.

Climate Change and Water Supplies: Options for Sustaining Tank Irrigation Potential in India

Abstract: K Palanisami (k.palanisami@cgiar.org) is with the International Water Management Institute, ICRISAT; Ruth Meinzen-Dick is with the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington; and Mark Giordano is with the International Water Management Institute, Colombo. Climate change will affect water supplies in south Asia, where high-intensity floods and droughts are expected in the future. Increasing water storage is a key adaptation strategy, and the experience of irrigation tanks illustrates both the potential and challenges of this adaptation response. Although there are over 2,08,000 tanks in India, irrigating about 2.3 million hectares in 2000-01, the net area irrigated by tanks declined by 29% between 1990-91 and 2000-01 and by 32% between 2001 and 2008. This paper reviews the challenges faced by tank irrigation and examines options for improving their performance – revenue mobilisation through multiple use of tanks, augmenting groundwater resources in the tanks, integrating social forestry and desilting, and tank modernisation. The Fourth Assessment report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007a) has confirmed the increasingly strong evidence for the influence of human activity on the global climate. The IPCC has projected that average global temperature of the air above the earth’s surface would rise by 1.1°C-6.4oC over the next 100 years depending upon the scenario. Although there is considerable uncertainty in the precipitation projections for the future, it is likely that precipitation may increase in high latitudes and parts of tropics and decrease in some sub-tropical and lower mid-latitude regions. More floods, droughts, decreases in agricultural and aquaculture producti vity, displacement of millions of coastal dwellers due to sea level rise and intense tropical cyclones, and the degradation of mangroves and coral reef ecosystems are considered to be some of the likely consequences of climate change (IPCC 2007c). Indeed, heavy precipitation related floods, storm surges, and relatively higher temperatures have led to devastating consequences in recent years. For south Asia (Indian region), the IPCC has projected a rise in temperature of 0.5oC-1.2oC by 2020, 0.88oC-3.16oC by 2050 and 1.56oC-5.44oC, depending on the scenario of future development (IPCC 2007b). Overall, the temperature increases are likely to be much higher in the winter (rabi) season than in the rainy season (kharif). Precipitation is likely to increase in all time slices in all months, except during December-February when it is likely to decrease. Such global climatic changes will affect agriculture through their direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, livestock and pests.

NREGA Wage Payments: Can We Bank on the Banks?

Abstract: january 2, 2010 vol xlv no 1 EPW Economic & Political Weekly 30 This article has benefi ted from useful inputs from survey coordinators (Sunil, Kalyani, Shiva and Umashankar) and the entire survey team. We value Jean Dreze’s guidance and suggestions, which have given shape to this research. Special thanks are due to Reetika Khera, Anish Vanaik and Siddhartha for helpful comments. The fi eldwork was conducted under the auspices of the Krishna Raj Summer Programme at the Centre for Development Economics (Delhi School of Economics).

Para Teachers in India: Status and Impact

Abstract: Para-teachers, sometimes called "contract teachers", are being hired in increasing numbers in many Indian states. While hiring conditions, tenure, remuneration, and qualifications vary considerably across states, the use of para-teachers has generated debate about their impact on the quality of elementary education. Based on a critical literature review of available studies and new evidence from the SchoolTELLS survey conducted by the authors and their collaborators, this paper summarises the proof regarding the functioning and impact of para-teachers in elementary schools in India. None of the studies reviewed evaluates the causal impact of para-teachers, but they do suggest that despite poorer training, para-teachers may be more cost-effective than regular teachers. The questions of career progression and equity for teachers, nonetheless, also need to be addressed.

Organised versus Unorganised Manufacturing Performance in the Post-Reform Period

Abstract: This paper analyses the productivity performance of both the organised and unorganised segments of the Indian manufacturing sector using unit level data. Both partial and total factor productivity measures are employed. Our analysis reveals that labour productivity has increased for the organised sector over time, whereas both labour productivity and capital intensity growth have slowed down in the unorganised sector during the period between 2000-01 and 2004-05. The improvement in TFP growth in organised manufacturing in the post-2000 period as compared to the second half of the 1990s across most states in India is heartening as also the fact that output growth was mostly productivity-driven in the post-reform period. However, the declining TFP and the increasing capital intensity of the unorganised sector are causes of worry and raise several important questions.

Fertiliser Subsidy in India: Who Are the Beneficiaries?

Abstract: There is a general view in academic and policy circles that fertiliser subsidies are concentrated geographically on a relatively small number of crops and producers. In many cases they do not reach the targeted group(s). This paper examines the trends in fertiliser subsidy and issues of equity in its distribution between farmers and the industry, across regions/states, crops and different farm sizes. The study shows that fertiliser subsidy is more concentrated in a few states and interstate disparity in its distribution is still high though it has declined over the years. A fair degree of equity exists in the distribution of fertiliser subsidy among farm sizes. Based on the results, this paper justifies fertiliser subsidies and questions the rationale for a direct transfer of subsidy to farmers. G overnments in both developed and developing countries intervene in agriculture with a view to achieving a wide range of economic and social objectives. The reasons for government intervention are diverse and varied. Some of the oftcited reasons for intervention are self-sufficiency, employment creation, support to small-scale producers for adopting modern technologies and inputs, reduction of price instability and improvement of the income of farm households. This intervention can take a number of forms such as import-export policies and domestic policies like price support programmes, direct payments, and input subsidies to influence the cost and availability of farm inputs like credit, fertilisers, seeds, irrigation water, etc. Of all the domestic support instruments in agriculture, input subsidies and product price support are the most common. Various benefits are cited in justifying input subsidies: economic, environmental and social (World Bank 2008). Input subsidies can bring economic benefits to society but can also be a major cause of negative environmental externalities when they promote excessive use of fertilisers, agrochemicals and irrigation water. Inputs like fertilisers, irrigation water and electricity have a significant share in agricultural subsidies in India and fertiliser subsidy has attracted much attention of policymakers, researchers, and politicians in the recent past. One of the most contentious issues surrounding fertiliser subsidies in India is how much of what is paid out actually finds its way into the pocket of the farmer, and how much is siphoned away by the fertiliser companies. There has also been a debate about the issue of real beneficiaries of these subsidies (small vs large farmers, well-developed vs less developed regions, etc). This paper focuses primarily on two issues. One, whether fertiliser subsidy is going to the farmers or to the industry and two, is there equity in the distribution of fertiliser subsidy across regions, crops, and different farm sizes. Section 1 of this paper describes the trends in fertiliser subsidies in India while Section 2 deals with the issue of beneficiaries of fertiliser subsidy and interstate, inter-crop and inter-farm size disparity in fertiliser subsidy. The final section sums up the findings of the paper and raises some policy issues.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Birbhum.

Abstract: textThis study of the functioning of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme between February 2006 and July 2009 in Birbhum district, West Bengal reveals that in order to serve as an effective “employer of last resort”, the programme should provide proportionately more job-days during the agricultural lean season and wages should be paid in a timely manner.

Small but Effective: India's Targeted Unconditional Cash Transfers

Abstract: India’s approach to social security stresses the provision of subsidised food and public works. Targeted, unconditional cash transfers are little used, and have been hardly evaluated. An evaluation of cash transfers for the elderly and widows, based on the national household survey data and surveys on social pension utilisation in two, Karnataka and Rajasthan, reveals that these social pension schemes work reasonably well. Levels of leakage are low, funds flow disproportionately to poorer rather than richer households, and there is strong evidence that the funds reach vulnerable individuals. A comparison with the public distribution system reveals that the main strength of the social pensions scheme is its relatively low level of leakage. This paper hypothesises that social pensions suffer less from corruption than India’s other safety net programmes either because of the low levels of discretion involved in their delivery or the small size of the transfers involved. Since we cannot choose between these two

Agricultural price policy, farm profitability and food security.

Abstract: Agricultural price policy has come under serious attack recently for recommending support prices higher than what the costs of production warrant, supposedly leading to a distortion of the market, and, therefore, to food deprivation. With an in-depth analysis of costs and returns in rice and wheat, which are the most state-protected crops and underlie the livelihoods of millions of farmers, this paper examines the effectiveness of agricultural price policy in enabling farmers to obtain sufficient profits to promote investment, technology and productivity and thereby to food security. The rising cost of production due to the overemphasis on getting input prices right is a major factor that has led to higher support prices. Another factor is the percolation of volatility in global prices through trade liberalisation. Because of this, wheat support prices had to be hiked steeply in recent years so that sufficient quantities are procured. This has distorted parity between the prices of rice and wheat.

Saving agricultural labour from agriculture: SEZs and politics of silence in Tamil Nadu.

Abstract: This paper is partly based on research conducted in conjunction with the Politics of Special Economic Zones in India project coordinated by the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, City University of New York, and funded by the Ford Foundation. I am thankful to the coordinators and co-researchers on this project, Rob Jenkins and Loraine Kennedy in particular, for comments and suggestions that helped me sharpen the focus of the paper. The paper also benefi ted a lot from useful suggestions from Ajit Menon, M S S Pandian and Padmini Swaminathan, and discussions with A Bhavana, J Jeyaranjan, Madhumita Dutta, K Nagaraj and T Veeraian. I thank them all.

John Locke and the Governance of India's Landscape: The Category of Wasteland in Colonial Revenue and Forest Legislation

Abstract: The influence of John Locke’s theory of property on the policies governing India’s landscape is examined in this paper. Locke’s concept of wasteland, as opposed to value-producing land, constituted a founding binary opposition that constructed how landscapes were categorised. The period under study covers the Permanent Settlement (1793), the Ryotwari Settlement of Bombay, and the India Forest Acts (1865 and 1878). It is shown as to how the categories of waste and productive land were applied to groups supposedly attached to different landscapes, i e, “tribes” and “castes”. Associated with wildness, wilderness, and savagery in the 19th century, the category of wasteland also defined who would and who would not become most vulnerable to dispossession and/or enclosure.

Complex implications of the Cancun climate conference.

Abstract: When the dust settles after the Cancun climate change conference of the United Nations, a careful analysis will find that the adoption of the “Cancun Agreements” may have given the multilateral climate system a shot in the arm, but that the meeting also failed to save the planet from climate change and helped pass the burden of climate mitigation onto developing countries. Instead of being strengthened, the international climate regime was weakened by the now serious threat to close the legally binding and top-down Kyoto Protocol system and to replace it with a voluntary pledge system. The 2010 climate conference of the UN Framework Convention on C limate Change (UNFCCC) which took place in Cancun (Mexico) between 29 Nove mber and 11 December was complex in process and content, and in both aspects it will have an importance and a number of ramifications that will take s everal years to unfold. In substance, the conference outcome has set in train a process that will probably lead to very significant changes in the international climate regime. In particular, it may have laid the final groundwork for the demise of the Kyoto Protocol and thus of the crumbling of the foundation of the architecture agreed to in the climate conference of Bali in December 2007 which launched the Bali Road Map. In general, it has weakened in operational terms the critical principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities by blurring the careful distinctions between developed and developing countries in their respective and qualitatively different types and levels of commitment and responsibilities, especially in mitigation or the efforts to combat the effects of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In terms of process, the Cancun conference saw the use of a combination of methods of work and decision-making that are not normally used in United Nations conferences. It may have set a precedent of sorts for a UN meeting by using World Trade Organisation (WTO)-style methods and processes to reach an outcome. Moreover, in the final sessions, the chair of the conference gavelled through the key decision documents despite the strong objection of one country, in so doing stating that this was in line with the consensus principle. In fact at the UN as well as at the WTO, c onsensus is taken to mean that no m ember present formally objects to the decision at hand. The Cancun conference was in fact a combination of six different meetings of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol. The most important of these was the Conference of Parties (COP) of the UNFCCC, the Meeting of the Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (CMP), and the sessions of the two ad hoc working groups on long-term cooperative action (AWG-LCA) and on the further commitments of Annex I parties in the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). The AWG-KP had been formed in 2005 to negotiate the new emission-reduction goals of those developed countries that are parties to the Kyoto Protocol (all are, except the United States), since the first commitment period ends in 2012, and the second period is scheduled to start in 2013. The AWG-LCA was formed at the Bali conference in 2007, to follow up on the Bali Action Plan whose aim is to fully implement the Convention’s objectives, through enhanced actions in mitigation, adaptation, transfers of finance and technology to developing countries and a shared vision including on a long-term goal for global emission reduction.

Institutional dysfunction and challenges in flood control: A case study of the Kosi Flood 2008

Abstract: Economic & Political Weekly EPW january 9, 2010 vol xlv no 2 45 Rashmi Kiran Shrestha (rashmi777@hotmail.com) and Rhodante Ahlers are with UNESCO-IHE, Delft, The Netherlands. Marloes Bakker is with the Cooperative for Climate and Water, The Hague and Joyeeta Gupta is with UNESCO-IHE, Delft and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. institutional Dysfunction and challenges in Flood control: a case study of the Kosi Flood 2008

Agriculture, industry and mining in Orissa in the post-liberalisation era: an inter-district and inter-state panel analysis.

Abstract: The liberalisation process that started in India in the early 1990s has made Orissa potentially the most attractive destination for large capital-intensive projects by private-sector firms – typically mineral-based ones. These projects are facing opposition from the people, especially those likely to be displaced and those who will be indirectly affected. At the same time, the state’s woes – poverty and unemployment – remain to be addressed. Against this backdrop, this article examines – both analytically and empirically – the path taken by the three important sectors of the state: agriculture, industry, and mining. Based on an inter-district and inter-state panel analysis, the paper highlights the serious decline in the Orissa’s agricultural sector – still the only significant determinant of per capita income in the state – while the mining sector, be it in production or exports, has flourished.

Implementation of the forest rights act in the Western Ghats Region of Kerala.

Abstract: This study of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the Western Ghats of Kerala identifies the main constraints to the working of the legislation. Community rights and conservation provisions seem to be ignored. The paper also highlights the importance of integrating the implementation of the fra with the participatory forest management programmes for providing community rights to the use of forests products. It also recommends a need for sensitising communities to various provisions of the legislation.

Levels and trends in Caesarean births: cause for concern?

Abstract: A consistent increase has been observed in the rate of Caesarean section deliveries in most of the developed countries and in many developing countries, including India, over the last few decades. An analysis of the National Family Health Survey data shows that the rate of this form of delivery in states like Kerala, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu is alarmingly high. States with marked demographic transition as well as high institutionalised births have an infl ated rate of c-section deliveries.