Reimagining Prosperity: Social and Economic Development in Post-COVID India

359 Pages·2023·9.342 MB·English

by  Arash Fazli, Amitabh Kundu

Reimagining Prosperity
Social and Economic
Development in
Post-COVID India
Edited by
Arash Fazli · Amitabh Kundu
Reimagining Prosperity
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a number of vulnerabilities in our
economic system and the policies that underpin it. …Reimagining Prosperity does
an excellent job of not only identifying such vulnerabilities but also suggesting
sensible, practical solutions that are highly relevant for India and other countries
in the developing world facing some of the same challenges. I wholeheartedly
recommend this book to development economists and policymakers everywhere;
it is timely, intellectually stimulating and inspiring.”
—Augusto Lopez-Claros, Executive Director, Global Governance Forum and
Former Chief Economist, World Economic Forum
“As this volume reveals, the COVID-19 crisis and its intersection with other
economic and environmental crises was a source of danger and suffering that
revealed many of the weaknesses of Indian society but also permitted identifica-
tion of opportunities to act on multiple fronts to create a more just, cohesive,
effective and resilient India.”
—Michael Dunford, Emeritus Professor, University of Sussex, UK
“Many believe that the smart recovery of the Indian economy from the Covid-
induced shocks indicates that it was only a passing nightmare. Nothing could
be further from the truth. As this book shows in great depth and detail, there
have been fundamental structural changes in the economy across a wide range
of sectors.”
—Pronab Sen, Former Chairman, National Statistical Commission, and
Principal Economic Adviser, Planning Commission, New Delhi
“This stimulating volume provides astute insights into the profound shock of
the pandemic on Indian society and economy, and makes a compelling case
for broadening the dominant approach to development and the role players
involved.”
—Ivan Turok, Research Chair in City-Region Economies, University of Free
State, South Africa
·
Arash Fazli Amitabh Kundu
Editors
Reimagining
Prosperity
Social and Economic Development in Post-COVID
India
Editors
Arash Fazli Amitabh Kundu
Bahá’í Chair for Studies World Resources Institute
in Development New Delhi, India
Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya
Indore, India
ISBN 978-981-19-7176-1 ISBN 978-981-19-7177-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7177-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
Arash Fazli and Amitabh Kundu
2 Summoning the Collective Will and Courage to Seek
Economic Justice 17
Holly E. Hanson
3 Economic Justice in Post-COVID India:
A Macroeconomic Perspective 25
Parag Waknis
4 Labour Reforms and Economic Justice: Inequality,
the COVID-19 Pandemic and Regionalism 43
Amitabh Kundu
5 Youth Unemployment, Education and Job Training:
An Analysis of PLFS Data in India 59
Panchanan Das and Swarup Roy
6 Women, Work and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Paving
the Path Forward 79
Vibhuti Patel
v
vi CONTENTS
7 Whither Adivasi Livelihoods? A Longitudinal Study
of a Bhil Village in Gujarat 97
H. S. Shylendra
8 Transforming India’s Agrarian Society
in a Post-COVID World: Prospects and Challenges 133
Harbir Singh Sidhu
9 Impact of COVID-19, Lockdowns and Economic
Slowdown on Food and Nutrition Security in India 153
Dipa Sinha
10 Degrowth, Diversity and Decentralisation: Building
Sustainable Food Systems for Food and Nutrition
Security 171
Richa Kumar
11 Water Management Priorities in a Post-COVID World 189
P. S. Vijayshankar
12 Principles for Water Governance in a Post-COVID
World: Water Sector Needs to Be Embedded
in Environmental Justice 201
K. J. Joy
13 Seeing Water Differently 223
Vishal Narain
14 Reclaiming Their Place in the City: Narratives
of Street Food Vendors of Bengaluru During
the COVID Crisis 237
Puja Guha, Annapurna Neti, and Roshni Lobo
15 The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Female
Domestic Workers in an Urban Setting 259
Nomita P. Kumar and Kavita Baliyan
16 Impacts of COVID-19 on Public Health in Urban
Slums in India and Lessons for the Future 283
Siddharth Agarwal, Kanupriya Kothiwal,
Shabnam Verma, and Mayaram Sharma
CONTENTS vii
17 Whose Knowledge Makes a City Smart? Exploring
Conceptions of the Role of Knowledge in Urban
Policy in Indore, India 305
Caroline E. Fazli
Index 335
Contributors
Siddharth Agarwal Urban Health Resource Centre, New Delhi, India
Kavita Baliyan Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow, India
Panchanan Das University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Arash Fazli Bahá’í Chair for Studies in Development, Devi Ahilya Vish-
wavidyalaya, Indore, India
Caroline E. Fazli University of Bath, Bath, UK
Puja Guha Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India
Holly E. Hanson Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, USA
K. J. Joy Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management
(SOPPECOM), Pune, India;
Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, Pune, India
Kanupriya Kothiwal Urban Health Resource Centre, New Delhi, India
Nomita P. Kumar Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow,
India
Richa Kumar Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT
Delhi, New Delhi, India
Amitabh Kundu World Resources Institute, New Delhi, India
ix
x CONTRIBUTORS
Roshni Lobo Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India
Vishal Narain Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon,
India
Annapurna Neti Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, India
Vibhuti Patel Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, India;
Indian Association for Women’s Studies, Chelari, India
Swarup Roy Department of Economics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata,
India
Mayaram Sharma Urban Health Resource Centre, New Delhi, India
H. S. Shylendra Department of Economics, Institute of Rural Manage-
ment Anand (IRMA), Anand, Gujarat, India
Harbir Singh Sidhu Mumbai, India
Dipa Sinha Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi, New Delhi, India
Shabnam Verma Urban Health Resource Centre, New Delhi, India
P. S. Vijayshankar Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Bagli, India
Parag Waknis Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, Delhi, India
List of Figures
Fig. 4.1 Percentage loss or inequality in the three inequality
adjusted indices of human development for the Indian
states 2011 48
Fig. 4.2 India Gross Domestic Product collapse in the face
of the pandemic 50
Fig. 4.3 Gross Domestic Product growth rate has contracted for six
quarters 50
xi