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THIS volume discusses issues relating to poverty in South Asia by focusing on injustice created and perpetuated by the unjust nature of social order and provides concrete suggestions about how policymakers may move to rectify this injustice. It redefines poverty as a process, where certain sections of society are excluded from equal participation in development opportunities and decision-making. South Asia is the second fastest growing region in the world after East Asia. This growth has reduced poverty, but not to the extent of complete eradication. It has nearly 600 million people living on less than $1.25 a day—more than in Sub-Saharan Africa. The author has tried to explain as to why poverty still exists in South Asia when there are a large number of poverty elimination programmes in place. It is now an accepted fact that growth alone is inadequate to address the poverty problem.
The book is an outcome of six years of research carried out on the challenges of poverty conducted jointly by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Bangladesh, and the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), Nepal. In order to find out South Asian country specific poverty situations, studies were commissioned to obtain inputs for the book. At the onset, the author says: "Our study is predicated on the proposition that the persistence of poverty and growth in inequality derive from the unjust nature of social order which effectively excludes the resource poor from equitable opportunities for participating in the development process." He further says: "Unless the structural injustices which underlie poverty can be corrected, poverty will persist across South Asia." The inequitable distribution of opportunities across society between the rich and the excluded is defined as "structural injustice." The term "structural" indicates that exclusion does not derive from the play of market forces but originates in the structural arrangements of society, which determine the working of market forces as well as the design and functioning of its institutions. The author highlights four main areas of structural injustice: unequal access to assets, unequal participation in the market, unequal access to human resource development, and unjust governance. All these structural injustices have been fully explained. After elaborating these four areas, the author makes suggestions as to how to correct these injustices. The general recommendation is empowerment of the excluded by strengthening their capacity to participate on more equitable terms in a market economy and democratic polity. The author says democratising access to assets and markets should be backed by equitable access to education and health care. In the globalised world, where capital has become volatile, and jobs are vulnerable and disposable, employers disappear into a vague and shady background. For instance, in Sri Lanka, after three decades of liberalisation, 62 per cent of the workforce is in the informal sector. Moreover, over the years, the control of production system has shifted away from manufacturers into the hands of companies designed mainly to trade in the production of others. Chains of production with lead firm and several suppliers, with the lead firm no longer responsible for the employment relationship and working conditions, is a common phenomenon today. The production and labour are outsourced now. Hence, becoming a principal in the production process is possible in traditional and well-established import substitution type of sectors (like Amul—India, Cargill—Sri Lanka.), and not necessarily in export-oriented industries dominated by FDI and multinational corporations (MNCs). This area will need further research, i.e., identifying production areas where empowerment of excluded is possible via collective action. In a section on "Institutions for Promoting Collective Action", there is a discussion of Employee Share Ownership Programmes (ESOP), but it is not clear how ESOPs would work in the informal sector where poor labourers work. The fundamental question will arise as to who will take responsibility for establishing an ESOP. It is suggested that the international community should take this matter of broadening the share ownership by workers in companies they are dealing with but, as highlighted, international production by MNCs is characterised by splicing the value added chain and shredding labour. The author has combined
great analytical skills with deep scholarship and brought home some key
factors that determine poverty in the South Asian region. It is a must
read for all those who are interested in poverty eradication through
various tools enunciated by the author.
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The
author argues that increased resource flows poverty elimination
programmes may not be effective unless policy makers address the
structural sources of the problem, which create and perpetuate poverty.
This is the key theme of the book.