Author: Jean Dreze
Amartya Sen/
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 512
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195658752
Description
The first edition of this book was published in 1995, under the title India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. But the Indian economy and society have also moved on, and it seems right, seven years after the last manuscript went to print, to look back and take stock.
This book explores the role of public action in eliminating deprivation and expanding human freedoms in India. The analysis is based on a broad and integrated view of development, which focuses on well-being and freedom rather than the standard indicators of economic growth. The authors place human agency at the center of stage, and stress the complementary roles of different institutions (economic, social, and political) in enhancing effective freedoms.
In comparative international perspective, the Indian economy has done reasonably well in the period following the economic reforms initiated in the early nineties. However, relatively high aggregate economic growth coexists with the persistence of endemic deprivation and deep social failures. Jean Drèze and Amartya Sen relate this imbalance to the continued neglect, in the post-reform period, of public involvement in crucial fields such as basic education, health care, social security, environmental protection, gender equity, and civil rights, and also to the imposition of new burdens such as the accelerated expansion of military expenditure. Further, the authors link these distortions of public priorities with deep-seated inequalities of social influence and political power. The book discusses the possibility of addressing these biases through more active democratic practice.
Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH
1. The Perspective of Freedom
2. Inequality and Participation
3. Comparative Perspective
4. Women’s Agency and Social Change
5. Institution and Opportunities
6. Democracy, Environment and Militarism
7. Voice, assertion and Solidarity
8. A Concluding Remark
CHAPTER 2: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SOCIAL OPPORTUNITY
1. Development, Freedom and Opportunities
2. On Education and Health
3. The Social Dimension of Health and Education
4. The Government, the State and the Market
5. Interdependence between Market and Governance
6. Market-excluding and Market-complementary Interventions
7. Market Mania and Market Phobia
8. Cooperative Action and Social Context
9. A Positive Focus
CHAPTER 3: INDIA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
1. India and the World
2. Lessons from Other Countries
3. East Asia and Growth-mediated Progress
4. Human Capital and More Basic Values
5. India’s Internal Diversities
6. Selected Regional Perspectives
7. Political Action and Rural Development in West Bengal
8. Kerala: Scrutiny and Significance
9. Social Opportunities in Himachal Pradesh
10. Concluding Remarks
CHAPTER 4: INDIA AND CHINA
1. Perceptions of China
2. Conditions of Life and Death
3. Contrasts in Basic Education
4. pre-reform Achievements
5. Post-reform Records
6. Health Care in the Post-reform Period
7. Pre-reform and Post-reform Connections
8. Authoritarianism, Famines and Vulnerability
9. Coercion, Population and Fertility
10. The Real Lesson for India from China
CHAPTER 5: BASIC EDUCATION AS A POLITICAL ISSUE
1. Basic Education and Social Change
2. The State of School Education
3. Educational Hopes and the Discouragement Effect
4. On Female Education
5. The Shifting Goalpost of Universal Elementary Education
6. Public Expenditure and Education Policy
7. School Quality and the Need for Accountability
8. The Schooling Revolution in Himachal Pradesh
9. Compulsory Schooling and the Right to Education
10. Education and Political Action
CHAPTER 6: POPULATION, HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
1. India’s Population: Concerns and Scrutiny
2. Malthusian Fears and the Real Issues
3. Gender Equity and the Demographic Transition
4. Health Care as a Social Responsibility
5. Reproductive Health and Beyond
6. Achievements of Tamil Nadu
7. Environment and Development
8. Consequences of Environmental Plunder
9. Environment and the Constructive Perspective
CHAPTER 7: GENDER INEQUALITY AND WOMEN’S AGENCY
1. Female Deprivation and Missing Women
2. On the Female-Male Ratio
3. Women’s Agency and child Survival
4. Fertility and Women’s Emancipation
5. Gender Bias in Natality
6. Widowhood and Gender Relations
7. Criminal Violence: Poverty vs Patriarchy
8. Gender Equality and Social Progress
CHAPTER 8: SECURITY AND DEMOCRACY IN A NUCLEAR INDIA
1. The Wages of War
2. The Moral and the Pragmatic
3. Sources of Strength and Dangers of Underestimation
4. Deterrence and Security
5. The Nuclear Debate
6. The Social Costs of Militarism
7. Defense Expenditure and Social Needs
8. Escalation: Costs and Risks
9. Militarism and Democracy
CHATPER 9: WELL BEYOND LIBERALIZATION
1. What is the Cage?
2. Radical Needs and Moderate Reforms
3. Growth and Development in the Nineties
4. Economic Reform and Social Policy
5. Hunger Amidst Plenty
6. Globalization and Inequality
7. A Concluding Remark
CHAPTER 10: PRACTICE ON DEMOCRACY
1. Ideals, Institutions and Practice
2. Inequality and Empowerment
3. Decentralization and Local Democracy
4. Transparency and Corruption
5. Accountability and Countervailing Power
6. Human Rights and Democracy
7. Democracy and Participation
Statistical Appendix
References
Subject Index
Name Index