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POST the budget, and even more after the accolades heaped upon Indias growing economy by George Bush, our policy-makers appear confident about the prospects of a steady eight per cent growth in GDP. And now, with the stock market breaching the 11,000 mark barrier, optimists have even started dreaming of a ten per cent growth. All that may well be true malls and multiplexes are coming up at a frenetic pace, the white goods market is booming, salaries of management graduates have touched an all time high.
Yet, in the excitement of joining the big league, are we missing out the story in the India that is not shining farmers suicides, millions of displaced tribals forced to make way for mining and manufacturing conglomerates, even the urban poor, whose livelihood and life stands threatened by a slew of new regulations designed to convert our metros into a Shanghai. With over 170 districts in the country currently in the grip of Naxalite violence or armed insurgency, it is time that the UPA regime remember its promises to the aam aadmi.
True, the current obsession with neo-liberal economic orthodoxy focusing on growth rates and reduction of fiscal deficits is by no means confined only to the Congress led UPA. Neither the BJP, nor for that matter the Left have, in the states they run, experimented with a different strategy. Barring minor variations, their focus remains on attracting big capital, domestic or foreign, which alone is credited with the ability to transform our economy. And if in the process the underclass gets further squeezed out, why, that is only the necessary cost the nation must be willing to pay if it has to move out of persistent under-development.
Our economic czars might profit from reading two new books that advocate a new economic strategy. Development with Dignity: A Case for Full Employment (NBT, 2005) by Amit Bhaduri, lays out the macro-economic rationale for a major and immediate expansion of the employment guarantee scheme which alone, he claims, can help satisfy basic needs within a democratic framework. Rather than fall prey to arguments of fiscal restraint, particularly in the arena of public provisioning of goods and services, or worse, experiment with full capital account convertibility to attract foreign capital, Bhaduri believes that domestic resources both monetary and non-monetary should be leveraged in a massive programme of labour intensive infrastructure creation and upgradation via a decentralized system of local self government. This alone, he argues, will both provide needed incomes and employment to those in need as also stimulate internal demand and production.
Of course, this calls for a committed and pro-active government, one which does not siphon away public resources for cronies and vote banks and thus bankrupt the state a tall demand. There is understandable scepticism that an active civil society exercising its right to information, a vigilant media and competitive electoral politics can work in tandem to discipline the venal confluence of the propertied and political classes. Bhaduris economic logic is compelling; his political analysis is somewhat less so.
It is, however, the other book We are Poor but so Many by Ela Bhatt (OUP, 2006) that makes for a more gripping read, in part because Ela Bhatts and SEWAs track record of working with thousands of poor women through unions, cooperatives, even a bank is so stirring. These real life stories of collective struggle of ordinary women demonstrate that a humane policy is no pipe dream, that given a facilitative framework and opportunity our working citizens can lead a productive and dignified life. If only we let them.
Central to Ela Bhatts message is the need to reconceptualise work and shift resources and policy to serve the 90% of our workforce in the informal economy, individuals who even today contribute 63% of our GDP, 40% of all exports, and over half our savings. If only we simplify our economic-legal regime and provide secure property entitlements to the poor, we would not only decriminalize a large segment of our population, reduce the fickle and rent extractive behaviour of petty officialdom but also give a boost to national growth. Why not improve vendor markets in our cities, provide them access to drinking water, storage for goods and garbage disposal, design a transport system that caters to their needs instead of encouraging private transport or expensive metro rail?
No large, open and democratic society like ours can continue to ignore the left-out masses, hoping that development will somehow trickle down. As faith in our politicians and political parties, if not in democratic politics, declines, the result may well be a growth in violence. This we are already experiencing in over a third of the country. But, will we learn and, more importantly, change?
Harsh Sethi
