India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity

418 Pages·1999·13.82 MB·English

by  Jean Drèze

India
Economic Development and Social
Opportunity
India
Economic Development and
Social Opportunity
JEAN DREZE
and
AMARTYA SEN

PREFACE
We have tried, in this monograph, to analyse the task of economic
development in India in a broad perspective, in which social as well as
economic opportunities have central roles. We consider, therefore, not only the
facilities offered-important as they are-by wellfunctioning markets and
beneficial exchanges, but also the fundamental role of human capabilities, and
their dependence on basic education, health services, ownership patterns,
social stratification, gender relations, and the opportunity of social cooperation
as well as political protest and opposition. Variations in social opportunities
not only lead to diverse achievements in the quality of life, but also influence
economic performance, and in particular, the extent to which the facilities
offered by functioning markets can be used by the citizens in general.
This general approach is explored fairly extensively, drawing on empirical
findings from different parts of India, and also on international comparisons.
We outline in particular what can be learned from the experiences of other
countries-successful as well as unsuccessful ones-and also from the varieties
of experiences within India. Special attention is paid to the role of basic
education in social transformation as well as economic expansion. The
importance of women's agency in bringing about major changes is another
central area of investigation in this work. There is also considerable discussion
of the role of political and social movements, particularly in confronting deep-
seated inequalities.
At the end of the monograph we present a substantial Statistical Appendix,
partly as a supplement to the empirical arguments presented here, but also as
general information which might be of interest to the reader. Since we do
discuss in reasonable detail the nature of the economic challenge faced in India
at this time, there is some possibility of treating this book also as an
introduction to aspects of the Indian economy (usable even by those readers-
those dreadful ones!-who are uninterested in the main theses of this
monograph).
The broad perspective presented here, we believe, has some relevance in
understanding the obstacles to economic development in India and the basic
failure of public policies to remove them. Even though the expansion of social
opportunities was very much the central theme in the vision that the leaders of
the Indian independence movement had presented to the country at the time
the British left, rather little attempt has, in fact, been made to turn that vision
into any kind of reality. An opportunity for a break from the past, in this
respect, could have been seized when economic reforms were initiated in
1991, but the focus of attention in that programme has been almost exclusively
on the opening up of the Indian economy and on broadening the reach of the
markets. Those are certainly worthy goals, and the need for reform had been
strong for a long time in the over-regulated Indian economy, but the lack of
any initiative towards a radical change in social policies, including those in
basic education and elementary health care, is a major failure, with deeply
negative implications on the prospects of improving living conditions and even
on the chances of success of the market reforms themselves. While this book is
not primarily a commentary or a critique of contemporary economic policies
in India, that subject receives some attention in the general context of
diagnosing the roots of India's economic and social backwardness.
The study draws on comparisons of India's achievements with those of other
countries, including the ones that have skilfully used market opportunities and
international economic integration, such as South Korea and other economies
of east Asia and south-east Asia, and more recently post-reform China. In
terms of social opportunities, each of these countries had done much more
already at the time when they were initiating their major economic changes
than India has achieved even by now (for example, each of them had a much
higher level of literacy, already then, than India-still half illiterate-has now).
India is in some danger of emulating the divisive pattern of economic growth
experienced in countries such as Brazil, with much social inequality, rather
than the more participatory development seen in, say, South Korea.'
Expansions of basic human capabilities, including such freedoms as the
ability to live long, to read and write, to escape preventable illnesses, to work
outside the family irrespective of gender, and to participate in collaborative as
well as adversarial politics, not only influence the quality of life that the Indian
people can enjoy, but also affect the real opportunities they have to participate
in economic expansion. An illustration of the compartmentalized nature of
official Indian thinking on this subject is provided by the statement made on
behalf of the Government of India to the `Group of 77' in its meeting at the
United Nations in New York last September, asserting that `the concepts of
sustainable human development and of human security' involve a `conceptual
derailment of our basic purpose of development cooperation'. The statement
was made precisely at a time when the mini-epidemic of plague in India was
frightening foreign tourists and businessmen away from India, and the
consequences of neglecting `sustainable human development and human
security' were painfully apparent not only in living conditions in India but also
in its impact on India's putative attempt at integration with the world economy.
The policy limitations relate not only to governmental decisions, but also to
the nature of public discussion, particularly the potential for criticizing these
decisions. So much energy and wrath have been spent on attacking or
defending liberalization and deregulation that the monumental neglect of
social inequalities and deprivations in public policy has received astonishingly
little attention in these debates. The issues underlying liberalization are not, of
course, trivial, but engagement on these matters-in opposition or in defence-
cannot justify the conformist tranquillity on the neglected provisions of public
education, health care, and other direct means of promoting basic human
capabilities. In fact, sometimes contentious regulational matters seem to get
astonishing priority in political discussions over more foundational concerns
related directly to the well-being and freedom of the mass of Indian citizens.
Debates on such questions as the details of tax concessions to be given to
multinationals, or whether Indians should drink Coca Cola, or whether the
private sector should be allowed to operate city buses, tend to `crowd out' the
time that is left to discuss the abysmal situation of basic education and
elementary health care, or the persistence of debilitating social inequalities, or
other issues that have a crucial bearing on the well-being and freedom of the
population. In a multi-party democracy, there is scope for influencing the
agenda of the government through systematic opposition, and the need to
examine the priorities of public criticism is as strong as is the necessity that the
government should scrutinize its own relative weights and concerns.
The interstate comparisons presented in this monograph draw on more