The Long Road to Social Security: Assessing the Implementation of National Social Security Initiatives for the Working Poor in India

This book is about social security, or the lack of it, for the labouring poor in India. It is a critical study of the working of two flagship national social security schemes initiated by the Government of India, namely, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), and the national health insurance scheme called the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY). Fresh contributions made by senior scholars and researchers, these essays provide rich data and analysis on the status of social security schemes at work in five Indian states-Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, and Punjab-by carrying out local level studies that capture the conditions and responses of the labouring poor. In addition, some essays also assess the implementation of the old-age and other pension schemes introduced both by the Central and state governments. The studies are multidisciplinary in nature as they combine macro- and micro-level data, as well as qualitative and quantitative data. The volume reveals the limitations of these schemes both in terms of design and implementation in the current neoliberal setup in India. Available in OSO: Contributors to this volume - K.P. Aravindan is Professor of Pathology, Government Medical College, Calicut, Kerala; Jaswinder Singh Brar is Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala; Jan Breman is Professor Emeritus and Fellow, Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Amarendra Das is Lecturer in Economics, Utkal University, Odisha; Sucha Singh Gill is Director General, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh; N. Jagajeevan is Programme Officer, State Poverty Alleviation Mission, Government of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Varinder Jain is Assistant Professor of Economics, Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur; Satyakam Joshi is Professor of Social Anthropology, Centre for Social Studies, Gujarat; K.P. Kannan is Former Director and Professor of Development Economics, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Rathikanta Kumbhar is Lecturer in Economics, University of Sambalpur, Odisha; T.P. Kunhikannan is Professor of Economics, Government College of Calicut, Kerala; Darshini Mahadevia is Professor of Planning and Public Policy, Centre for Urban Equity CEPT University, Ahmedabad; D. Narasimha Reddy is Visiting Professor, Institute of Human Development, New Delhi; Sukhwinder Singh is Professor of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala; G. Vijay is Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad