India, economic development and social opportunity

Jean Drèze

This book presents an analysis of endemic deprivation in India, and of the role of public action in addressing that problem. The analysis is based on a broad view of economic development, focusing on human well-being and social opportunity rather than on the standard indicators of economic growth. India's success in reducing endemic deprivation since Independence has been quite limited. Recent diagnoses of this failure of policy have concentrated on the counterproductive role of government regulation, and on the need for economic incentives to accelerate the growth of the economy. This book argues that an assessment of India's failure to eliminate basic deprivations has to go beyond this limited focus, and to take note of the role played in that failure by inadequate public involvement in the promotion of basic education, health care, social security, and related entitlements. Even the fostering of fast and participatory economic growth requires some basic social change, which is not addressed by liberalization and economic incentives alone. The authors also discuss the historical antecedents of these political and social neglects, including the distortion of policy priorities arising from inequalities of political power. The book considers the scope for public action to address these earlier biases and achieve a transformation of policy priorities.