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NEWS ALERTS | India Exclusion Report: Fresh perspective on poverty
India Exclusion Report: Fresh perspective on poverty

India Exclusion Report: Fresh perspective on poverty

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published Published on Jun 27, 2014   modified Modified on May 23, 2016

India has witnessed many fiery debates on poverty estimates. Equally contentious has been the issue of inequality. Now a new report on exclusion offers a fresh perspective on poverty, inequality and social justice. (See below a summary of the report)

Based on data and knowledge resources available in the public domain, India Exclusion Report 2013-14 highlights the systematic discrimination faced by women, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Muslims, persons with disabilities and the sexual minorities (LGBT) in accessing the public goods and services. Consider the following for just an idea of the scale and depth of exclusion prevailing in our society: 

* India ranked 11th from the bottom out of 133 countries on female labour market participation, found the ILO in a global survey (2013).

* The number of destitute persons in India is more than 100 million, which is approximately 10 percent of the total population and roughly one-third of the population is extremely poor, according to a study by Jan Breman (2013).

* The incidence of poverty among Muslims is 25.6 percent, among STs is 33.8 percent and among SCs is 31.7 percent during 2009-10, as per a study by Rajeev Malhotra (2014). However, the overall incidence of poverty during the same year has been 23.7 percent. 

* More than 95 percent of the housing shortage in 2012 was experienced by families belonging to Low Income Group (household income between Rs 5,000 & 10,000 a month) and Economically Weaker Sections (household income under Rs 5,000 a month), as per the Kundu Committee report (2012).

The report collates facts, figures, numbers, instances and case studies to throw light on the issues of exclusion. It also discusses lacunae in the data available in the areas covered. The report is divided into 9 comprehensive chapters.    

The chapter on 'School Education' analyzes the processes of exclusion ‘by the system’, ‘within the system’ and ‘through the community or family’ for major marginalized groups (girls, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims and children with disabilities) despite the enactment of Right to Education Act and running of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan in the country. Drawing on both primary and secondary data, the chapter documents the specific vulnerabilities and concerns that result in the near complete exclusion from education for children from some highly excluded groups (street children, child workers, children in conflict areas and migrant children, among others). In the case of school education, there are serious questions on the reliability of the District Information System on Education (DISE), the primary official source of data on access and quality of school education. 

The chapter on 'Urban Housing' explains that housing is not recognised as a fundamental right in India, which has a deep political impact on the perception of the entitlements of urban citizens to housing. On top of it, urban housing policy has been marked by its mistaken focus and implementation failures. Policies have emphasized the involvement of private actors and developers, and have been singularly ownership-focussed, instead of being supportive of rental housing. The chapter documents the overlapping of familiar disadvantages in the housing space: gender, caste, religion, and ability. There is limited data available on the conditions of the housing poor in urban India— slum dwellers, residents of illegal settlements and unplanned colonies, or those living in congested or poor quality housing. The lack of regular and accurate data on the substantial homeless population in India is a serious gap. 

The chapter on 'Decent Work in Labour Markets' explains that India has failed to create enough jobs for its growing workforce during the last one decade. Informalization of labour markets led to rampant exclusions from employment rights of majority of the working class. The presence of labour protection laws has meant little under a regime where the government is either unable or unwilling to implement these laws and hold employers accountable. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have weakened labour protection laws. There is an almost complete dearth of information on the nature and terms of employment, particularly in the informal sector.

The chapter on 'Legal Justice in Relation to Anti-Terror Legislations' stresses that whereas official data is largely silent on the application of anti-terror legislations in India, a number of unofficial sources have documented the extensive misuse of both central level anti-terror laws [like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act] and those enacted at the state level (for instance, in Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Karnataka). Anti-terror laws have been used to selective target Muslims, Adivasis, Dalits, activists and political opponents. The chapter discusses the serious implications of the abuse of anti-terror legislations on the people falsely accused of terror crimes and their families. There is little official data on the application of anti-terror legislations in India and the socio-economic background of persons charged or detained under such laws. In many cases, no attempt has been made by the government to collect such data. Information on access to legal aid by prison population and conviction rates, are not available on a disaggregated basis for various social group.

The chapter on 'Exclusion in Planning and Budgetary Processes' provides an assessment of the responsiveness of plans and budgets in India to some of the largest excluded sections of population —Dalits, Adivasis, religious minorities, and women. It discusses the broad contours of the fiscal policy framework prevalent in India over the last decade and its impact on promoting social inclusion. The chapter also discusses the specific planning and budgetary strategies adopted for the major excluded groups. It highlights some of the lacunae common to these strategies and indicates possible corrective policy measures.

The chapter on 'Transgender' discusses the many ways in which the transgender community has been discriminated against in India and denied elementary rights. It discusses Section 377 of the IPC, which makes punishable ‘unnatural offences’ of voluntary and consenting sexual intercourse, which go ‘against the order of nature’. The chapter looks at society’s deep discomfort with transpeople. It informs us that in April 2014, India’s Supreme Court took a major step in making India more inclusive and humane, by according legal recognition for the first time to transpeople as a ‘third’ gender, and went on to classify them as ‘other backward classes’, thereby making them eligible for affirmative reservations in education and public employment.  

The chapter on 'Bonded Labourers' highlights that labour bondage is constantly evolving based on prevalent social and economic structures. Governments continue to deny the existence of bondage and hardly any employers of bonded labour have been punished to date. The law has failed to address the enabling conditions that make bondage possible and is more responsive than preventative. There are myriad reasons due to which India’s poorest and socially most vulnerable communities fall into bondage. 

The chapter on 'Musahars' is based on research findings of the ethnographic survey conducted by the Centre for Equity Studies in June 2012 in Narauli and Dumri villages, in Musahri block of Muzaffarpur district. The chapter informs that the musahar community suffer from extreme levels of asset and capability deprivations. They perform poorly on human development outcomes. Even today, poverty and inequality are embedded in the social structure, with upper castes controlling much of the assets and opportunities. At the heart of this predicament is landlessness.

The exclusionary processes highlighted in the report are: a. Faulty design of law and policy; b. Failures and institutional bias in the implementation of law and policy; c. Active violence and discrimination by the State; and d. Low and faulty budgetary allocation. The report makes the point that the State cannot shy away from its responsibility of providing public goods and services such as school education, urban housing, decent employment in labour markets, and legal justice (in relation to anti-terror legislations) to those who are excluded and live on the fringes of society. This is so because if the State steps back from providing public good, it will aggravate social and economic inequalities. 

The organizations which took part in producing the report are: Centre for Equity Studies (New Delhi), Aneka (Bangalore), Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (New Delhi), Centre for Social Equity and Inclusion (New Delhi), Indian Institute of Human Settlement (Bangalore), Nirantar (New Delhi), New Education Group-Foundation for Innovation and Research in Education (New Delhi), National University of Education Planning and Administration (New Delhi), Institute of Development Studies, Sussex (UK) and Brown University, Providence (USA). 

References: 

India Exclusion Report 2013-14 (please click here to download the summary)

India: Marginalized Children Denied Education- Use Monitoring, Redress Mechanisms to Keep Pupils in School, Human Rights Watch, April, 2014 (please click here to access)  

Conditions of SC/ST Households: A Story of Unequal Improvement by RB Bhagat, Economic and Political Weekly, October 12, 2013, Vol xlviiI 62 no. 41 (please click here to access) 

Chapter-5: Demographic Particulars of Prison Inmates, Prison Statistics India 2012, NCRB (please click here to access)  

DISE data, http://www.dise.in/  

Housing for poor can spur economic growth  


'More Employment doesn't Mean Better Employment, The New Indian Express, 25 June, 2014  

India’s Informal Economy: 400 Million Strong, Little Or No Access To Workplace Benefits -Angelo Young, International Business Times, 24 June, 2014  

Disadvantaged groups have little access to public goods, says India exclusion report -Jitendra, Down to Earth, 12 June, 2014  

Many Indians Feel Custodial Torture Justified: Amnesty, Outlook, 14 May, 2014  

Unchanging destinies of the poor-Harsh Mander, Live Mint, 7 May, 2014  

Development and Adivasi rights - Ramesh Gopalakrishnan, Live Mint, 15 July, 2013  
 
Changing landscape for sexual minorities in India-Dinesh C Sharma, The Lancet, Volume 383, Issue 9936, Pages 2199 - 2200, 28 June 2014 (please click here to access) 
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi



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