IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v38y2010i4p620-630.html

Do Rights Work? Law, Activism, and the Employment Guarantee Scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Joshi, Anuradha

Abstract

Summary Recent, "rights-based approaches" offer a promising route for bringing about social change. However, we have little experience with state-provided legally enforceable socio-economic rights. This paper examines one of the few examples of a legally granted socio-economic right--a limited "right to work"--that has existed in one state of India for over 25 years in the form of the Employment Guarantee Scheme. The paper argues that legal underpinnings do not automatically enable the poor to obtain rights; however, legal rights have important indirect effects for pro-poor activist organizations including mobilizing membership, protecting activists from arbitrary action, and shifting public discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Joshi, Anuradha, 2010. "Do Rights Work? Law, Activism, and the Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 620-630, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:620-630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(09)00203-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Herring, Ronald J. & Edwards, Rex M., 1983. "Guaranteeing employment to the rural poor: Social functions and class interests in the employment guarantee scheme in Western India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 11(7), pages 575-592, July.
    2. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & Chaudhuri, Shubham, 1993. "Does Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme Guarantee Employment? Effects of the 1988 Wage Increase," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 251-275, January.
    3. Mick Moore & Vishal Jadhav, 2006. "The politics and bureaucratics of rural public works: Maharashtra's employment guaranteed scheme," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(8), pages 1271-1300.
    4. Fox, Jonathan A, 1990. "The Challenge of Rural Democratization: Perspectives From Latin America and the Philippines," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt8p92h4c8, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    5. S. Mahendra Dev, 1996. "Experience of India's (Maharashtra) Employment Guarantee Scheme: Lessons for Development Policy," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 14(3), pages 227-254, September.
    6. R Gaiha & K Imai, 2005. "A Review of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0513, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Indrajit Roy, 2019. "Class Politics and Social Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Local Governments in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 121-150, August.
    2. Marcesse, Thibaud, 2018. "Public Policy Reform and Informal Institutions: The Political Articulation of the Demand for Work in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 284-296.
    3. Das, Ritanjan & Dey, Subhasish & Neogi, Ranjita, 2021. "Across the stolen Ponds: The political geography of social welfare in rural eastern India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    4. Akerkar, Supriya & Joshi, P.C. & Fordham, Maureen, 2016. "Cultures of Entitlement and Social Protection: Evidence from Flood Prone Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 46-58.
    5. Fleischman, Forrest D., 2014. "Why do Foresters Plant Trees? Testing Theories of Bureaucratic Decision-Making in Central India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-74.
    6. Deval Desai & Michael Woolcock, 2012. "The politics of rule of law systems in developmental states: 'political settlements' as a basis for promoting effective justice institutions for marginalized groups," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-008-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    7. de Haan, A., 2011. "Rescuing exclusion from the poverty debate," ISS Working Papers - General Series 22626, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    8. Kashwan, Prakash & MacLean, Lauren M. & García-López, Gustavo A., 2019. "Rethinking power and institutions in the shadows of neoliberalism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 133-146.
    9. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. R Gaiha & K Imai, 2005. "A Review of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0513, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    2. Marcesse, Thibaud, 2018. "Public Policy Reform and Informal Institutions: The Political Articulation of the Demand for Work in Rural India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 284-296.
    3. Bose, Nayana, 2017. "Raising Consumption Through India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 245-263.
    4. S. Mahendra Dev, 1996. "Experience of India's (Maharashtra) Employment Guarantee Scheme: Lessons for Development Policy," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 14(3), pages 227-254, September.
    5. Martin Ravallion, 2022. "On the Gains from Tradable Benefits‐in‐kind: Evidence for Workfare in India," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(355), pages 770-787, July.
    6. Rinku Murgai & Martin Ravallion & Dominique van de Walle, 2016. "Is Workfare Cost-effective against Poverty in a Poor Labor-Surplus Economy?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 30(3), pages 413-445.
    7. Fox, Jonathan A & Bada, Xochitl, 2008. "Migrant Organization and Hometown Impacts in Rural Mexico," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt7jc3t42v, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    8. Deval Desai & Michael Woolcock, 2012. "The politics of rule of law systems in developmental states: 'political settlements' as a basis for promoting effective justice institutions for marginalized groups," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-008-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    9. Christopher B. Barrett & John G. McPeak, 2006. "Poverty Traps and Safety Nets," Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion, and Well-Being, in: Alain Janvry & Ravi Kanbur (ed.), Poverty, Inequality and Development, chapter 0, pages 131-154, Springer.
    10. Nancy Chau & Ravi Kanbur & Yu Qin, 2014. "Do public work schemes deter or encourage outmigration? Empirical evidence from China," IZA Journal of Labor & Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, December.
    11. Beegle, Kathleen & Galasso, Emanuela & Goldberg, Jessica, 2017. "Direct and indirect effects of Malawi's public works program on food security," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-23.
    12. Fox, Jonathan A & García Jiménez, Carlos & Haight, Libby, 2009. "Rural Democratization in Mexico’s Deep South: Grassroots Right-to-Know Campaigns in Guerrero," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt3nv6s088, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    13. Hebous, Sarah & Klonner, Stefan, 2014. "Economic Distress and Farmer Suicides in India: An Econometric Investigation," Working Papers 0565, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    14. Martin Ravallion, 2011. "A Comparative Perspective on Poverty Reduction in Brazil, China, and India," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 26(1), pages 71-104, February.
    15. S. Mahendra Dev, 2018. "Inequality, Employment and Public Policy," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 61(1), pages 1-42, March.
    16. Martin Rama, 2002. "Globalization and Workers in Developing Countries," Economics Study Area Working Papers 41, East-West Center, Economics Study Area.
    17. Indrajit Roy, 2019. "Class Politics and Social Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Local Governments in India," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 121-150, August.
    18. S. Mahendra Dev, 2003. "Right to food in India," Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad Working Papers 50, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India.
    19. Andrew Sumner & Meera Tiwari, 2005. "Poverty and economic policy: what happens when researchers disagree?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 791-801.
    20. Christopher Blattman & Edward Miguel, 2010. "Civil War," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(1), pages 3-57, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:620-630. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.