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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The neoliberal reforms of 1991 didn’t work as claimed -Jayati Ghosh

The neoliberal reforms of 1991 didn’t work as claimed -Jayati Ghosh

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published Published on Jul 23, 2021   modified Modified on Jul 27, 2021

-Macroscan.com/ Livemint.com

There is a common trope, fed especially to generations born after 1991, that economic progress and modernization in India really occurred only after ‘liberalizing’ economic reforms were introduced three decades ago. This is a travesty of the truth. Certainly, conditions for most Indians have improved since that watershed year. Per capita income went up more rapidly than before, life expectancy went up, infant and maternal mortality decreased, income poverty probably went down (though this is hard to tell because of changes in the official estimation of poverty over this period). But this would not have been possible without the foundations set by earlier trends, and in terms of most indicators, the rest of the world did even better.

Some developing countries with a more heterodox strategy that retained significant state control (like China) did much better. In comparative terms, progress in India has been minimal or even non-existent.

India’s overall Human Development Index (HDI) score (a composite of per capita gross domestic product, or GDP, life expectancy and education indicators) improved from 0.433 in 1991 to 0.645 in 2019 (before the pandemic). But India’s HDI rank slipped from No. 114 to No. 131, a dismal performance even allowing for the increased number of countries. Even this was largely because of per capita income; other indicators remained woeful even compared to poorer countries like Bangladesh. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) shows 28% of India’s population in multidimensional poverty, with another 20% vulnerable to it, much higher proportions than the developing-country average.

The stated goals of the 1991 reforms were higher rates of income growth with more employment generation and diversification into higher value-added activities. Of these, only higher income growth was achieved, but at the expense of massive environmental destruction and without enabling structural change. Employment stagnated and then fell from 2011; industrialization did not take off beyond what was already achieved before 1991; most workers remain stuck in low-paying informal work; women’s employment participation declined significantly. Nutrition indicators are poor, with declining per capita calorie consumption, and worse outcomes for women and young children, even before covid hit. Farming is under threat, and small and micro enterprises that employ the bulk of workers face an extreme crisis.

So the question is why higher GDP growth did not translate into better conditions for most Indians. The answer lies in the pattern of growth, which was highly unequal and provided benefits mainly to a small minority of people. This increased inequality was not just an unfortunate by-product of the reform process, it was embedded in its very framework. The neoliberal reforms were based on the idea that removing restrictive regulations on different markets and providing incentives and concessions to large capital would lead to increased private investment, which would become the engine of growth, increasing employment, incomes and standards of living. Opening up to global finance was supposed to further add to domestic investment.

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Macroscan.com/ Livemint.com, 23 July, 2021, https://www.networkideas.org/news-analysis/2021/07/the-neoliberal-reforms-of-1991-didnt-work-as-claimed/?fbclid=IwAR2hONLEmLYUpUTvX0C3n8VmLv0SvDbFdTu4XkAP1GcNb_pZAipo-nRJZeU


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