The Future of India's Social Safety Nets

India has learned what to do and what not to do when it comes to implementing policy to address human suffering. The COVID-19 pandemic unified the international response in similar ways, and the world has a lot to learn about key initiatives in India that have been implemented since India's independence. This open-access book includes key learnings about the conceptualization, design, and impact of social welfare programs in India spanning more than a 75-year period.

The Future of India's Social Safety Nets provides a comprehensive analysis of these systems by combining insights from a wealth of interdisciplinary scholarship on social protection, economic development, and social policy. It covers India's social development in terms of three essential aspects of policy design: focus (intended beneficiaries), form (transfer modalities), and scope (developmental objectives). Highlighting the developmental achievements and shortcomings of the myriad of social welfare schemes, this book proposes a framework to foster human resilience through social protection.
This is an open-access book.

Introduces a framework to study India's social safety net system in terms of focus, form, and scope Evaluates India's safety nets according to requisite impact on on food security Contains comparative studies of prominent safety net programs implemented in other countries This is a open access book

Autorentext

Prabhu Pingali is Professor of Applied Economics and Founding Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI) at Cornell University. Pingali is a member in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and an AAEA Fellow. He was president of the International Association of Agricultural Economists and has over three decades of experience working with some of the leading international agricultural development organizations. Anaka Aiyar is Post-Doctoral Associate with the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), Cornell University. Anaka obtained her PhD in Economics at the University of California, Riverside. Her research spans the area of health economics with a focus on developing countries. Prior to her PhD, she worked in India on field based action research projects, impact evaluations and has conducted market research for social entrepreneurs. Mathew Abraham is Assistant Director of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), Cornell University. He has a PhD from the Department of International Economics and Management, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He has over 15 years of research experience in agricultural development, agricultural markets and food security in developing countries. Andaleeb Rahman is Post-Doctoral Associate at the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition (TCI), Cornell University. His research spans food policy, rural transformation and the political economy of development with a geographical focus on India. He wrote his doctoral dissertation at the Indira Gandhi Institute for Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai.

Inhalt

1. India's Safety Net System, Development and Challenges.- 2. Evolution of Social Safety Nets.- 3. Hunger to Nutrition Nexus.- 4. Poverty and Livelihoods.- 5. Intergenerational Growth.- 6. Health Care.- 7. Filling Gaps in Safety Net Design: Targeting, Modality and Technology.- 8. Political Economy Considerations and Effective Governance.- 9. Way Forward.