This book by renowned economist Jean Drèze was published in 2017 by Oxford University Press. It is a collection of essays which study the infrastructure of hunger, poverty, health, and corruption in India – that is, “various aspects of India’s social development in the broadest sense”, as the author notes.Using data from fieldwork conducted in rural India between 2000-2017, Drèze writes about government action and inaction determine terms of development, rights, equality, and economic growth. The 356-page document is divided into 10 sections: Drought and Hunger (Section 1); Poverty (Section 2); School Meals (Section 3); Health Care (Section 4); Child development and elementary education (Section 5); Employment Guarantee (Section 6); Food security and the public distribution system (Section 7); Corporate power and technology (Section 8); War and Peace (Section 9); Top-up (Section 10). Some of the important essays are summarised below: Drought and HungerStarving the Poor: The essay focuses on the Indian food subsidy schemes under the Food Corporation of India (FCI). It argues that households barely benefit from the subsidised PDS foodgrains. Rather, they bear the cost of hoarding by the government, in high food prices. Further, Dreze argues that the need to keep food prices high is unsubstantiated. This is because low food prices benefit the poor, and low-income farmers do not gain from high grain prices. Either way, artificial sustenance of food prices is bad policy...
Authors
- Pages
- 356
- Published in
- India
- Rights
- Jean Drèze
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala economics for everyone 6
- Copyright 7
- Contents 8
- Acknowledgements 12
- INTRODUCTION: Economics among the Road Scholars 14
- Social Development 16
- On Research and Action 17
- Hard Work No Pay 21
- Evidence, Experience, and Enlightenment 23
- Public Policy and Democratic Practice 26
- Experience and Values 29
- Jholawala Economics 31
- Scheme of the Book 33
- 1: DROUGHT AND HUNGER 35
- Starving the Poor 37
- Fragile Lifelines, Robust Oppression 41
- The Right to Food and Public Accountability 45
- Memories of Kusumatand (with Bela Bhatia) 49
- The Dark Well of Hunger 54
- Notes 57
- 2: POVERTY 59
- The Poverty Trap 62
- From Statistical Benchmark to Social Division 62
- The BPL Club 64
- On the Poverty Line 67
- Beyond Small Mercies 71
- Five Hurdles 72
- Signs of Change 74
- Squaring the Poverty Circle (with Angus Deaton) 76
- The Calorie Trap 76
- Implausible Results 78
- Way Forward 78
- Notes 80
- 3: SCHOOL MEALS 82
- Hunger in the Classroom (with Vivek S.) 85
- Food for Equality 89
- Beyond Ghoogri 89
- Caste, Class, and Gender 91
- Midday Meals and the Joy of Learning 94
- Caste, Class, and Eggs 98
- Notes 101
- 4: HEALTH CARE 103
- Health Checkup 106
- India Leapfrogged 110
- Health at Sixty-six 113
- Small Leap Forward in Child Health 117
- Kerala Tops, Gujarat Flops, Bihar Hops (with Reetika Khera) 121
- Notes 124
- 5: CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND ELEMENTARY EDUCATION 127
- Class Struggle (with the PROBE Team) 130
- Two Myths 130
- The Discouragement Effect 132
- Dilapidated and Idle Classrooms 132
- Outlook 134
- The Welfare State in Tamil Nadu 136
- Children Under Six: Out of Focus 139
- Struggling to Learn (with Anuradha De, Meera Samson, and A.K. Shiva Kumar) 144
- Positive Changes 144
- Inside the Classroom 145
- No Quick Fix 146
- The Future 148
- Progress of Children Under Six 149
- Notes 153
- 6: EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE 155
- Employment as a Social Responsibility 159
- Employment Guarantee and Its Discontents 164
- Unseemly Arguments 164
- Employment and Empowerment 166
- Myths and Reality of Corruption (with Reetika Khera and Siddhartha) 170
- Employment Guarantee or Slave Labour? 175
- Guaranteeing Productive Work 180
- Playing With Mud? 180
- Learning from NREGA 182
- Notes 185
- 7: FOOD SECURITY AND THE PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM 188
- Food Security Act: Indecent Proposal? 191
- The PDS Turnaround in Chhattisgarh (with Reetika Khera) 196
- First Steps: Checking the Middlemen 196
- People-friendly Transparency 198
- Enhancing Voice 199
- A Political Move 199
- Rural Poverty and the Public Distribution System (with Reetika Khera) 201
- Inclusive PDS 201
- Impact on Poverty 202
- Lessons for the Food Security Bill 204
- The Food Security Debate in India 206
- Poor States Catch Up 211
- Improved Framework 211
- Winds of Change 212
- Looking Forward 214
- Notes 214
- 8: CORPORATE POWER AND TECHNOCRACY 217
- Glucose for the Lok Sabha? (with Reetika Khera) 220
- Nehruvian Budget in the Corporate Age 224
- Unique Identity Dilemma 228
- The Aadhaar Coup 232
- Sweeping Powers 232
- Mass Surveillance 233
- Uncertain Benefits 234
- Dark Clouds over the PDS 237
- PDS Reforms 237
- Impending Setback 238
- The Aadhaar Juggernaut 240
- Notes 241
- 9: WAR AND PEACE 243
- Nuclear Deterrence: From MAD to Worse 246
- Deterrence and Credibility 246
- Escalation Games 247
- Responsible Leaders? 249
- The Future of War in Retrospect 251
- Kashmir: Manufacturing Ethnic Conflict 255
- The Warped Logic of Nuclear Gambles 259
- India and the Deal: Partner or Pawn? 263
- Kashmir’s Hidden Uprising 266
- No Protests Allowed 266
- General Strike 267
- Sledgehammer Response 269
- Dead Conscience 270
- Notes 271
- 10: TOP-UP 274
- Rang de Basti (with Bela Bhatia) 277
- Voting in Maoist Land 281
- The Bribing Game 285
- Postscript 287
- The Quiet Grip of Caste 289
- The Gujarat Muddle 293
- Three Misconceptions 293
- The Gujarat Middle 295
- On the Mythology of Social Policy 299
- Facts and Fiction 300
- Possible Backlash 302
- The Bullet Train Syndrome 304
- The Mother of All Disruptions 307
- Gambling with People’s Lives 307
- Disruption as an Opportunity 309
- Decoding Universal Basic Income 313
- Premature Articulation 313
- UBI in the Economic Survey 316
- Development and Public-Spiritedness 319
- Notes 324
- References 327
- SOURCE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 336
- Drought and Hunger 336
- Poverty 336
- School Meals 336
- Health Care 337
- Child Development and Elementary Education 337
- Employment Guarantee 337
- Food Security and thePublic Distribution System 338
- Corporate Power and Technocracy 338
- War and Peace 338
- Top-up 339
- Name Index 340
- Subject Index 345
