ABSTRACT

Much has been made of India's phenomenal economic growth rates. India's per capita income grew at an average of 7 per cent per annum between 2004/05 and 2009/10, lower only than China. Estimates of poverty released by India's Planning Commission for 2009/10 also suggest a decline of 7.4 percentage points in poverty between 2004/05 and 2009/10, with the rate of decline of poverty almost doubling between 2004/05 and 2009/10 compared to 1993/94 and 2004/5. However, along with the decline in poverty and an acceleration of growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP), there are also concerns about how the growth has been shared across various occupational, social and religious groups. While a large part of these concerns has been articulated as the deepening of existing social inequalities, an equally large part has been attributed to the process of economic growth that has followed the economic reforms of the early 1990s. This has not only been articulated by academics and civil society groups but also by policymakers such as the National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Some of these have been raised by government-appointed committees. For example, the Sachhar Committee set up by the government clearly documented the vulnerable situation of Muslims and their exclusion from the development process. The manifestation of these concerns has largely come from various civil society movements, be it on land acquisition (e.g. in Singur and Nandigram), displacement of people (large dams), corruption and, last but not least, by the increased militancy of workers (e.g. at Suzuki in Burgaon). 1 Although the response has not always been an acceptance of the process of exclusion, the fact that ‘inclusive growth’ has been projected as the binding principle of governance does imply a tacit acceptance of the exclusionary process of growth.