Sense and Solidarity: Jholawala economics for everyone

This book by renowned economist Jean Drèze was published in 2017 by Oxford University Press. It is a collection of essays which study the infrastructure of hunger, poverty, health, and corruption in India – that is, “various aspects of India’s social development in the broadest sense”, as the author notes.

Using data from fieldwork conducted in rural India between 2000-2017, Drèze writes about government action and inaction determine terms of development, rights, equality, and economic growth. The 356-page document is divided into 10 sections: Drought and Hunger (Section 1); Poverty (Section 2); School Meals (Section 3); Health Care (Section 4); Child development and elementary education (Section 5); Employment Guarantee (Section 6); Food security and the public distribution system (Section 7); Corporate power and technology (Section 8); War and Peace (Section 9); Top-up (Section 10). 

Some of the important essays are summarised below: 

Drought and Hunger

Starving the Poor: The essay focuses on the Indian food subsidy schemes under the Food Corporation of India (FCI). It argues that households barely benefit from the subsidised PDS foodgrains. Rather, they bear the cost of hoarding by the government, in high food prices. Further, Dreze argues that the need to keep food prices high is unsubstantiated. This is because low food prices benefit the poor, and low-income farmers do not gain from high grain prices. Either way, artificial sustenance of food prices is bad policy. The only good solution is one that generates income for the poor, such as innovation and crop diversification. 

The Right to Food and Public Accountability: Rural districts in Chhattisgarh highlight the need to reform the ration system. Not only are ration shops geographically and financially inaccessible, ration dealers in rural areas “fleece” locals by charging high prices, promising less than national quota amounts, and selling their grain informally on the market. Ration-shop dealers should be incentivised with commissions, as well as held accountable using a democratic appointment and dismissal system. “Popular organisations and social movements” should also pay greater attention to the right to food.

Poverty

On the Poverty Line: The poverty line denotes “destitution”, and allowances based on it are unable to guarantee more than the barest subsistence. Debates between the Planning Commission and observers obscure the fact that in 2009-10, 30% of the population was below the poverty line, which is a significant 350 million people.

School Meals

Food for Equality: This essay uses Chattisgarh’s example to argue that quality needs to be taken care of in the implementation of midday meal programs. Midday meals, contrary to beliefs, promote valuable inter-caste socialisation and encouraged more girls and underprivileged children to be enrolled in schools. However, socialisation outcomes are defeated when “meals themselves become a site of discrimination”, by some Dalit children being made to sit separately.

Child development and elementary education 

Struggling to Learn: This essay deals with the lack of teaching activity in rural North India. Despite various positive changes, attendance is almost universally below enrolment levels, mainly due to teacher shortages. In 2006, 21% of schools were single-teacher schools. Numerous “quick fixes” have not been very effective, and responsible management that promotes regular teaching, is needed. 

Employment Guarantee

Employment Guarantee and Its Discontents: The author uses Noam Chomsky’s idea of “flak” to illustrate the nature of attacks on those policies that oppose ruling-class interests. Personal attack and “statistical hyperbole” are deployed, and others warn that money will never reach the intended due to corruption. But such a reality is not “immutable”, and empowering labourers will only help eradicate this.

Corporate power and technocracy

Glucose for the Lok Sabha: The essay focuses on correspondence between the Biscuit Manufacturers Association and members of the Lok Sabha, around the suggestion that a packet of biscuits have the same nutritional content as a midday meal, and so should be a replacement in schools. The correspondence resulted in 29 letters from MPs across the political spectrum, urging for the proposal to be considered. The proposal was shot down, but demonstrates the sway corporate lobbying holds.

Unique Identity Dilemma: This essay discusses the Unique Identity (UID) or Aadhar project. It was originally marketed as a voluntary enterprise, but Aadhar became mandatory for various social programs such as NREGA, and the public distribution system. Aadhar, the author argues, creates “an infrastructure of social control”, is rolled out without a legal framework endorsing its compulsory nature, and is not always foolproof.

War and Peace

The Warped Logic of Nuclear Gambles: This essay argues that India's war preparations against Pakistan are ethically questionable and strategically flawed, as they risk escalating into a real nuclear conflict without addressing cross-border terrorism. Even a limited war would likely fail to end terrorism or bring peace to Kashmir, and could increase violence instead. Moreover, the militaristic ambitions of some Indian political factions suggest that the war preparations might be driven by communal motives beyond counter-terrorism or “patriotism.”

Focus by Anandita Abraham.