January-14

Inclusive Growth

Since 1991, the mantra of ‘Inclusive Growth’ has been discussed ad infinitum and many programmes have been launched to reduce poverty and promote economic inclusion. The pre-liberalisation era saw the launch of many anti-poverty programmes, but most of them were symbolic in nature and failed to alleviate poverty as was propagated in the Five Year Plan. Over the past two decades, more rapid economic growth gave us greater opportunity and more tools to reduce poverty and promote inclusion. Many flagship programmes were launched with the primary objective of transferring the fruits of development and economic opportunities to the poor. The Planning Commission’s approach paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan documents 13 flagship development programmes covering many sectors – rural employment guarantee, housing, roads, direct assistance to the poor, health, education, child nutrition, urban development, irrigation, rural electrification, drinking water and agriculture. Are these programmes achieveing the results as envisaged in the FY Plan? While  some sociologists feel that ‘Inclusive Growth’ is more a myth than reality, there are others who believe that if implemented with honesty and systematically India can inch towards inclusive growth.  The January 2014 issue gives an insight on Inclusive Growth.

In ‘Symbolism vs Substance’, Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the founder and President of Lok Satta Party, proposes seven broad approaches to promote inclusive growth in the next decade. He believes India has the technology, resources and cumulative knowledge to make every Indian a productive member of a modern economy. But what is needed is an honest and robust approach in place of symbolism, hypocrisy and short-term populism, he says.

Though official documents state otherwise, there is little evidence, to claim that India has pursued a sustainable inclusive growth strategy, as the Five Year Plan formulation is not integrated with respect to participation in economic activity, income generation and welfare improvement. In ‘Sustainable growth still a distant dream’, Dr. M.H. Suryanarayana, teacher/researcher at Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, says India has a long way to go even to conceptualise such a process, let alone realise it.

In ‘Mindsets need to change first’, Dr. Madhav Chavan, CEO-President, Pratham Education Foundation, says that inclusive growth is not just a matter of making laws and creating governmental welfare programmes. It needs a cultural shift in the society. Schools are but one point where the process of shifting can begin, he says.  

In ‘The key to infrastructure development’, Dr. Buddhadeb Ghosh says that we need to wait and see how the new Government in 2014 will coordinate both public and private sector allocation across the ‘districts’ as opposed to ‘states’ in order to minimise the differences in key infrastructure facilities between the waning and the accelerating regions within a state. Therein lies our success, he says. The writer is Principal Investigator for MGNREGA and Border Area Development Programme (BADP) Projects, Planning Commission, GOI, New Delhi and Associate Scientist, Economic Research Unit at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Indian agriculture accounts for almost 14% of the total GDP and around 60 percent of our total population is still directly or otherwise involved in the agrarian systems. In ‘Peasantry neglected in the growth strategy’, Prof. Ajay Dandekar, a social scientist, writes that in such a scenario, India’s peasantry will have to be given its due place within the system, if the dream of inclusive growth has to be realised.

Economic growth has not generated as many jobs as anticipated. In ‘Bipolar Disorder’, Anuradha Kalhan, Lecturer, Dept of Economics, Jai Hind College, Mumbai (needs to be changed I think…plz get her exact design now), says that there also appears to be a growth in survival strategies to stay above the line of destitution instead of measurable employment.

The Approach Paper to the 12^th Five Year Plan was titled “Faster, Sustainable and More Inclusive Growth.” Sadly, there is no discussion about the status of women and the need to make a special effort to improve it. In ‘Bringing women into the ambit’, Kiran Moghe says that if there is no fundamental change in the direction of government policies, which need to turn their face to the poor, the marginalised and the deprived in our country, inclusive growth for women will be only a distant dream. The writer is National Joint Secretary, All India Democratic Women’s Association - AIDWA (Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sanghatana), a mass organisation of rural and urban women. Her work involves grassroots as well as policy level interventions on various gender issues.

In ‘Know India Better’, we feature ‘India: the new adventure land’. With adventure sport tourism on a steep incline, Akul Tripathi, a media professional and freelance writer, embarks on a quest to understand the ones emerging in India and the best places to experience them. He finds options galore and a bright future for all adrenaline junkies. Text and photographs: Akul Tripathi

In ‘Face to Face’, Arup Mitra, Professor of Economics, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, says, “Inclusive growth, in terms of notion, is not an illusion.” Prof. Mitra’s research interest encompasses urban development, labour and welfare, industrial productivity and growth, and gender disparities. He has written four books and more than hundred papers in various academic journals and edited volumes. His latest book ‘Insights into Inclusive Growth, Employment and Wellbeing in India’ covers a wide range of issues in development. Prof. Mitra, in an email interview with Rajlakshmi Pillai, speaks about the various factors that can contribute or hinder inclusive growth. In his view, if inclusive growth in India is pursued realistically, it can be a possibility.

In our ‘Feature’ section, in the article, ‘Focusing on the small economies is the need of the hour’, Amrita. S. Nair offers a few suggestions to revive growth and says how strengthening village economy and MSMEs can help decrease the intensity of the economic slowdown. The writer is an Economics graduate from Jai Hind College, Mumbai. She was an active member of the economics association of her college and a part of various group presentations concerning the economics seminars.

In the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding IPC Section 377 that criminalises homosexual act, Shoma A. Chatterji, in her article ‘Homosexuality in Indian mythology, literature and cinema’, writes that homosexuality is not a mere aping of the West but is evident in Indian mythology, history, literature and culture. The writer is a freelance journalist, film scholar and author. She has authored 17 published titles and won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema twice. She won the UNFPA-Laadli Media Award, 2010 for ‘commitment to addressing and analysing gender issues’ among many awards. She is currently Senior Research Fellow, ICSSR, Delhi, researching the politics of presentation of working women in post-colonial Bengali cinema 1950 to 2003.

From this issue on, we are embarking on a new journey to unearth the gems of wisdom from Indian’s rich ancient heritage. In the first part of the series, we present to you ‘India’s pioneering contributions to the world of medicine’. How many of us know that the world’s first plastic surgery was conducted in India by an Indian? Sushruta, an ancient Indian surgeon, delved into the intricacies of medicine and fine points of surgery in his treatise Sushruta Samhita, much before the western world even knew about it. Isn’t it time that the medical fraternity in India take a ‘Sushruta oath’ in place of the ‘Hippocratic oath’? This would be an apt tribute to the father of Indian surgery. A feature by B. M. N. Murthy, a retired senior engineer from the Life Insurance Corporation of India, who writes regularly on Indian heritage, tradition, vedic wisdom, etc. If you wish to be on his mailing list, contact him at bmnmurty@gmail.com

In ‘Cultural Kaleidoscope’, we conclude our series on Indian classical music. In the concluding article, Latha Venkatraman,  an independent journalist and a student of music, profiles three gharanas that continue to enrich Indian classical music and enthrall audience not just in India but worldwide.

In ‘Youth Voice’, Bhavya Ashwin Mehta who is pursuing Chartered Accountancy, shares his thoughts about serving society. Bhavya is the founder and Managing Trustee of Deeds Of Kindness Trust, a Borivili-based organisation that reaches out to people in need. He aspires to be an IAS officer so that he can bring about a change in the country. In his free time, he keeps researching on issues such as water harvesting, fuel saving, etc. 

In ‘Great Indians’, we feature Swati Tirunal, The Raja-Rishi (1813-1846); 

Lolita Sarkar, torchbearer of gender justice (1927-2013) and 

Colonel Venugopal Vasanth AC, Honour and pride…forever (1967-2007).

And also read our regular columns and other features. To book a copy, email to oiopfoundation@gmai.com / oiop@vsnl.net or call Nagesh Bangera, OIOP Subscription-in-charge at 022- 2353 44 00.

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