ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 is by Malini L. Tantri and Shruthi Mohan Menon. They answer the title question, ‘Is There a Broad-Basing Process in the Indian Economy?’ with the help of three criteria: food security, poverty and unemployment. Though economic growth in terms of GDP has been significant in the last two decades, the achievements on the fronts of food security, poverty reduction and employment growth have not been equally impressive. The states which have high levels of poverty are showing a slower decline in poverty. The number of the poor is declining, though still high. Employment growth is taking place mainly in the non-farm sector, but it is in the farm sector where there is a crisis. Even within the non-farm sector, informal employment is increasing more than the formal. Thus a large portion of the workforce – in agriculture and also non-farm sector – does not have job security, paid sick leave, medical reimbursement and retirement benefits. Economic growth has not yet brought the marginalised into the mainstream of the advantaged. The authors recommend greater stress on employment generation, skill creation, a boost to education and health sectors ensuring benefits to the marginalised, and a massive push to the village economy.
