Abstract
The book unravels our narrow understanding on ‘development’ and the author explains the narrative from the beneficiaries’ perspective. Development economics is a subject of broad and current interest in economic and political circles with economists and politicians defining and deciding important parameters for the ‘development indicators’, which are limited to food security, health, education, shelter, sanitation facility, and so on. The author narrates and defines development in the book through many anecdotes, clearly emphasizing on the need to understand the beneficiaries’ perspective. His personal experiences highlight that often the policy-makers and benefit providers end up understanding the problems from their perspective, which may result in mere interference in the natural-normal course of life led by the beneficiary.
The author expresses that in an attempt to pursue economic growth, the policy-makers have to focus on key indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), per capita income, standard of living, and so on. Their policies may pose a great challenge to human development as it results in displacement of communities, interfering into natural lives of tribes and rural folks. The economic activities such as constructing roads and dams, marking reserve forest, and so on may result in the loss of natural style of living of these people and connect to nature. The author observes that these tribes have embodied special skills and abilities, passed on to them through generations; they will stand to lose once they are uprooted. Some of the skills and abilities narrated in the book through various anecdotes are their ability to recognize and understand the forest environment, knowledge of natural medicines and ability to use forest-based resources for their livelihood. They are forced to acquire new ways of living for their survival once they are displaced. The displacement of tribes has a humane side; the emotions and dignity of people are emphasized in a rare attempt to address the issues of economic development. Addressing the complexities of measuring the indicators of development, the author raises pertinent questions on how to account for the loss of natural skills and abilities of the people. The author stresses on ‘development with dignity’. He also emphasizes that the benefit providers must consider the beneficiaries as partners in progress.
The book also deals with ‘natural conflicts’ that arise in the process of empowering people. The tribal and rural folks have failed to understand the objective behind government’s schemes such as Aadhaar, public distribution system (PDS), rural employment guarantee schemes, and so on to empower them. Therefore, the government should use various public–private administrative machineries to inform and educate people about the purpose as well as the outcomes of the schemes. Another issue raised is the need for ‘social innovation’ in the governing process. While addressing the issue of first-generation school goers, what appeals to the reader is that the author’s ability to understand the difference or rather the conflict between formal education and the knowledge is acquired through natural learning. The tribal children have abundant knowledge about the trees in forests, different animals and reptile species, and their life in the forest that they acquire naturally through observation. While reading this segment of the book, one feels that the formal education will make them unlearn so many things which they have inherited naturally. The book emphasizes on the need to understand the challenges of the beneficiary before deciding what is good for them and that the disconnect between the development practitioners and the beneficiaries need to be bridged.
The segments of the book focusing on topics such as ‘governance’, ‘democracy’ and ‘citizenship’ provoke unconventional thoughts. The book explains the perception of governance as viewed by various sections of the society. The author notes that each section feels that political class is responsible for rampant corruption and misuse of public money and office, resulting in bad governance. He emphasizes on citizens’ role in the system and considers the society as a mirror image. The book suggests that ‘community participation’ and ‘engagement with the state’ may ensure effectiveness of various public programmes and are steps towards good governance. The book also discusses governance issues from the administrators’ perspective. The events woven around the PDS highlight deep-rooted corruption. The social transformation initiatives of the new government such as Swachh Bharat, Clean Ganga, and so on are being applauded by the author and he opines that as an electorate, each citizen has to own the responsibility of responding positively to such initiatives to build a healthy democracy.
The book highlights, through real life cases, the issues of ‘citizen engagement and fighting corruption’. The author points out that the corruption has to be understood and dealt with rather than just be talked about. Television debates, sloganeering, or street protests can never fight corruption. The book rightly identifies that corruption is an impediment to economic development as it results in production of substandard public utility goods and services. Corruption has maximum impact on the poor and it widens the gap between the rich and the poor. The performance of the private sector is also affected by widespread corruption. The book stresses on the fact that corruption cannot be fought with a single tool but needs strong political will, legal framework, and community movement.
The author believes that the Right to Information Act (RTI) passed in 2005 is a remarkable change showcasing the changing political landscape in India. While on a month-long campaign on foot covering 120 villages between Mysuru and Bengaluru, the author experienced how people were responsive and eager to understand how RTI could be used to solve their problems with the administrative machinery. The book shares those experiences and quotes the difference in the response of villagers and city dwellers to the campaign. The author observes that the city life kills the natural curiosity and inquisitiveness; the city dwellers feel that the information is at their doorsteps, unlike the rural folks who have to make an attempt to gather and synthesize any information.
The book addresses the issue of citizens’ engagement to make democracy work in an electoral politics. The author stresses that citizens have an active role to play in the democratic process. They should be aware that their vote cannot be bought and therefore they should ethically cast their vote while choosing a representative. The author discusses how the common man identifies elections as a time to earn additional money as they are paid to participate in the election campaigns and bribed for casting votes (both cash and kind). There is a need to address the corrupt voter to eliminate the chances of breeding corruption. There is a necessity for free and fair elections. He views the introduction of None Of The Above (NOTA) option as a remarkable move towards creating a responsive and participatory democracy. NOTA will force the parties to field right candidates. Although various issues such as political rhetoric, party manifesto, and so on are highlighted, the book does not discuss the poor voting turnouts and the practical options to set right the political mess.
There is no doubt that policy-making is a macro exercise, affecting millions of lives. Since the author has worked with policy-makers as well as with grass-roots problems, he illustrates the perspectives which need to be considered while framing public policies. He articulates the need to value the life of rural farmer and reveals the present mess in compensating farmers. Practical solutions that can be offered to the farmers are also discussed in the book.
The author also touches upon pertinent issues like malnutrition, adverse effects of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Right to Education (RTE), financial inclusion, cost-effective medical facility, and so on. Although these are the relevant issues, towards the end, the book seems to be focusing on all possible areas of public policy. The author is right in identifying that the process of development is unending as new indicators may be added continually. The lives and rights of tribal communities living in India are highly vulnerable to the development process. It calls for occupational changes, cultural adaptation, and a different lifestyle. Organizations such as GRAAM can contribute constructively to the policy research and policy advocacy initiatives.
The elections held in 2014 have proved that Indian politics is at a crossroads and changes in the political and administrative set-ups are expected in the future. The book offers a lot of insights to the readers and triggers the readers’ thinking process. While the message on development, citizen engagement, democracy, and so on may not be entertaining to read, the way the issues are highlighted through the experiences of the author makes the book reading interesting and hard to put down. The narrative style of the book ensures that the tone of the book is positive and evokes the reader to ponder over possible solutions.