Vani S. Kulkarni

Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Panchayats, and the Rural Poor in India

Rural public works are a major component of Indias poverty alleviation strategy. The Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), the largest such program, was launched in 1989 following the merger of the National Rural Employment Program (NREP) and Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP). Between 1992-95, total allocation for the JRY grew 18%, from Rs 11.3 billion to Rs 13.4 billion (at 1980-81 prices-all government expenditure data are deflated at this level). Person-days of employment generated rose from 782 million to 895 million, implying a growth of more than 14%.1 The JRY aims to alleviate poverty through creating supplementary employment opportunities for the rural poor during agricultural slack periods. Other objectives are creating social assets, such as, roads, public forests, school buildings, and so forth, and increasing agricultural wage rates. JRY employment preference is given (though no specific targets are set) to members of Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 30% of the employment opportunities are reserved for women. The central governments assistance to Indias states and union territories is allocated on the basis of the proportion of rural poor in a state or union territory to the total rural poor in the country. Within a state, district-wise allocations are based on an index of backwardness that weights equally the proportion of rural

Demand for nutrients in India: 1993 to 2004

In response to the Deaton and Dreze (2009) explanation of a downward shift in the calorie Engel curve in terms of lower requirements due to health improvements and lower activity levels in India, we develop an alternative explanation embedded in a standard demand theory framework, with food prices and expenditure (as a proxy for income) cast in a pivotal role. We find robust food price and expenditure effects and shifting food price elasticities. There are shifts in demands due to factors other than lower requirements. So, while the Deaton and Dreze (2009) explanation is not rejected, it is arguable that it is complementary to the demand based explanations.

Obesity, Affluence and Urbanisation in India

Based on data collected from a representative national sample, India Human Development Survey 2005, this paper investigates the links between obesity among children and among adults with a number of socio economic characteristics as well as household and location specific variables. Both child and adult obesity are far from negligible, which is a matter of concern, given the links between obesity and some diseases. There are strong links between socio-economic indicators and risk of obesity. In particular, affluence has a robust link to obesity. Among children, taller children in more affluent households are more prone to obesity. Some demographic characteristics matter too, for example, both child and adult obesity rise with age but at a diminishing rate. Location also influences chances of obesity. Relative food price effects matter too through calorie, protein, fat and other nutrient intakes. A number of policy conclusions are also advanced.

On Hunger and Child Mortality in India

Despite accelerated growth there is pervasive hunger, child undernutrition and mortality in India. Our analysis focuses on their determinants. Raising living standards alone will not reduce hunger and undernutrition. Reduction of rural/urban disparities, income inequality, consumer price stabilization, and mothers’ literacy all have roles of varying importance in different nutrition indicators. Somewhat surprisingly, public distribution system (PDS) do not have a significant effect on any of them. Generally, child undernutrition and mortality rise with poverty. Our analysis confirms that media exposure triggers public action, and helps avert child undernutrition and mortality. Drastic reduction of economic inequality is in fact key to averting child mortality, conditional upon a drastic reordering of social and economic arrangements.

National rural employment guarantee scheme, poverty and prices in rural India

The objective of this analysis is mainly to construct an intuitive measure of the performance of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in India. The focus is on divergence between demand and supply at the district level. Some related issues addressed are: (i) whether the gap between demand and supply responds to poverty; and (ii) whether recent hikes in NREGS wages are inflationary. Our analysis confirms responsiveness of the positive gap between demand and supply to poverty. Also, apprehensions expressed about the inflationary potential of recent hikes in NREGS wages have been confirmed. More importantly, higher NREGS wages are likely to undermine self-selection of the poor in it.

How Pervasive is Eating Out in India

A key feature of India’s economic transformation has been a change in the nature of diets. There is a move away from inferior to superior foods and a substitution of traditional staples by primary food products, reflected in higher consumption of proteins, sugars, fats and vegetables. As part of this dietary transition, our analysis focuses on the pervasiveness of eating out and is based on a rich household survey for 2005. We broadly confirm the important role of urbanization, demographic changes, expansion of the middle class and its growing affluence on eating out. Since even more deprived sections are not immune to these evolving dietary patterns and given their limited access to medical care, health outcomes may well be grim.

The Legacy of Racial Caste: An Exploratory Ethnography

With the racial progress the nation has made over the past half century, including the growth of the black middle class and the election of a black president, many are now prepared to proclaim the United States a postracial society, where egalitarian values most often prevail; race is no longer a significant barrier to power, privilege, and prestige; and racial prejudice is mostly a thing of the past. When observed ethnographically, the lived experience of race relations suggests a different view and conceptual framework. As the legacy of racial caste, the color line persists in social interaction and is evident in racially determined perspectives and local working conceptions that order race relations and contribute to persistent racial inequality. Indeed, the claim of a postracial society is an ideological discourse that denies continuing patterns of race relations.

Diets, Nutrition and Poverty: The Indian Experience

This chapter focuses on the Indian experience with dietary changes, their nutritional implications, and policy response to alleviate nutritional deprivation. We review the evidence on nutrient intake and dietary changes, particularly the downward shift in calorie, protein and other nutrient intake over the period 1993–2004 and provide a demand based explanation of this shift. We report on eating out as an aspect of dietary transition, examine the relationship between calorie deprivation and poverty, and argue against delinking of the two. We analyse poverty nutrition traps, whether child undernutrition is underestimated and the double burden of undernutrition and obesity. We examine the (potential) contribution of National Rural Guarantee Scheme and Public Distribution System in mitigating the extent and severity of undernutrition. We emphasize that food security entails a right to certain policies to ensure food entitlements, as opposed to a narrow interpretation of the right to food in terms of state provisioning of these entitlements. Conclusions from a broad policy perspective are delineated.

Affluence, Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases in India

Recent high rates of economic growth in India have been accompanied by major dietary transitions. Using a nationwide household survey, India Human Development Survey 2005, this paper estimates the impact of such transitions on the incidence of non communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, coronary heart disease and cancer in India. The estimated deaths from NCDs are projected to rise from 3.78 million in 1990 (40.46 per cent of all deaths) to 7.63 million deaths in 2020 (66.70 per cent of all deaths). The paper also investigates relationships between NCDs and key demographic variables, level of affluence, caste affiliation and geographical concentration of the sample. The paper also models the determinants of these NCDs. The paper concludes with broad policy prescriptions.

Policy reforms, institutions and the poor in rural India

Abstract Structural adjustment in India was a response to the macro‐economic crisis of early 1991. Anticipating unfavourable short‐term effects of the policy reforms on the poor, outlays on anti‐poverty programmes were stepped up, and in 1992, the landmark 73rd Constitutional (Amendment) Act restructured local government councils, or panchayats. Whether this restructuring made any difference through the better design and implementation of anti‐poverty programmes is the focus of the present study.