Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 ISSN: 2277-9108 JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING Volume 2 Issue 1 June 2013 CONTENTS Pages Articles Regions and Crises: European and Asian Economic Governance Petr Blizkovsky 1 Poverty and Calorie Deprivation across Socio-Economic Groups in Rural India: A Disaggregated Analysis Abha Gupta & Deepak K. Mishra 15 Technical Efficiency and its Determinants in Backward Agriculture: The Case of Paddy Farmers of Hailakandi District of Assam Ritwik Mazumder & Manik Gupta 35 Women Home based Workers across Indian States: Recent Evidences Tulika Tripathi & Nripendra K Mishra 55 Health Situation in India: An Overview Shabir Ahmad Padder 65 Book Review Unfolding Crisis in Assam's Tea Plantations: Employment and Occupational Mobility; Deepak K. Mishra, Vandana Upadhyay, Atul Sarma Jhilam Ray 81
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Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013
ISSN: 2277-9108
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
Volume 2 Issue 1 June 2013
CONTENTS
Pages
Articles
Regions and Crises: European and Asian Economic Governance
Petr Blizkovsky 1
Poverty and Calorie Deprivation across Socio-Economic Groups in Rural India: A Disaggregated Analysis
Abha Gupta &
Deepak K. Mishra
15
Technical Efficiency and its Determinants in Backward Agriculture: The Case of Paddy Farmers of Hailakandi District of Assam
Ritwik Mazumder &
Manik Gupta
35
Women Home based Workers across Indian States: Recent Evidences
Tulika Tripathi &
Nripendra K Mishra
55
Health Situation in India: An Overview Shabir Ahmad Padder 65 Book Review Unfolding Crisis in Assam's Tea Plantations: Employment and Occupational Mobility; Deepak K. Mishra, Vandana Upadhyay, Atul Sarma
Jhilam Ray 81
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING Editorial Team Chief Editor
Kalyanbrata Bhattacharya formerly of Department of Economics, University of Burdwan Editor
Rajarshi Majumder Department of Economics, University of Burdwan Managing Editor
Jhilam Ray Department of Economics, University of Burdwan Editorial Advisory Board
Aditya Chattopadhyay, Calcutta University
Ajit K Singh, Giri Institute of Development Studies (formerly),
Amitabh Kundu, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Alakh N Sharma, Director, Institute for Human Development
Biswajit Chatterjee, Jadavpur University
Dinesh C Sah, MPISSR
Kausik Gupta, Rabindra Bharati University
Rabindranath Bhattacharya, Kalyani University (formerly)
Rajendra P Mamgain, Giri Institute of Development Studies
Shankar K Bhaumik, Calcutta University
Sibranjan Misra, Viswa Bharati
Tarun Kabiraj, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
If you take care of the parts, the whole will take care of itself
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013
Editorial Note
As we complete one year of publication of Journal of Regional Development and Planning, we
are both happy and sad. We are happy to observe that our journal has created interest among
researchers and administrators across the country and outside. We now receive a continuous
stream of good papers from serious authors who want to address the issue of regional
development and planning from diverse angles. However, being biennial, we cannot accommodate
more than ten papers in a year and so have a waiting list that keeps the editorial team happy. On
the contrary, we are yet to see the response that was expected from policy-makers. Addressing
issues of regional disparity at the policy level and taking concrete steps to bring down spatial
inequality is still not visible on the ground. Our earlier apprehension that persisting inequality
will only foment unrest and unlawful activities has been proved true by the recent spates of acts of
terror in central India, which is by far the least developed region of the country, and elsewhere.
And we are saddened by such developments.
We reiterate that Journal of Regional Development and Planning will continue to publish original
work that brings to light not only instances of regional development but also examples where lack
of homogeneous development of the constituent parts are leading to unfolding crisis.
RM
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
Quarterly Journal of The Indian Society of Labour Economics
Indian Journal of Labour Economics (IJLE), being published since 1957, is a prestigious organ of the Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE). Now in its 55th year, the Journal aims at promoting scientific studies in labour economics, industrial relations and related fields. Salient Features It is one of the few prestigious Journals of its kind in South Asia. It provides eminent economists and academicians an exclusive forum
for an analysis and understanding of issues related to labour economics. It Includes peer reviewed articles, research notes, book reviews, documentation and statistical information, particularly in the context of India and other developing countries.
Contributors Eminent and well known national and international academicians, social experts, researchers contribute and write for the Journal. Some of the prominent ones among them are Bina Agarwal, Amit Bhaduri, Sheila Bhalla, L. K. Deshpande, Jean Dreze, Gary.S. Fields, Indira Hirway, Ravi Kanbur, K. P. Kannan, J Krishnamurty, Amitabh Kundu, G. K. Lieten, Dipak Mazumdar, Jesim Pais, Rajarshi Majumder, T. S. Papola, D. Narasimha Reddy, Gerry Rodgers, Ashwani Saith, Arjun Sengupta, Ajit Singh, Ravi S. Srivastava, Guy Standing, Sukhadeo Thorat, Jeemol Unni, A. Vaidyanathan, etc. Special Issues IJLE also brings out one Special Issue in a year occasionally. Some of the recent ones among them are on “The Informal Sector in South Asia”, “Labour Migration and Development Dynamics in India “and “Wages and Earnings in India”. Indexed and Abstracted The Journal is indexed and abstracted in COREJ, LABORDOC, EconLit, e-JEL and JEL of the American Economic Association (produced by the Journal of Economic Literature), GEOBASE: Human Geography and International Development Abstracts.
We welcome your subscriptions Annual Subscription Rates: India – Rs. 1000; SAARC Countries –US$ 120; Overseas—US$ 200. For subscription, payment should be made in favour of The Indian Journal of Labour Economics through DD or local cheque payable at Delhi/New Delhi
Write to us All editorial and business correspondence should be made to: The Editor/Managing Editor; The Indian Journal of Labour Economics; NIDM Building, IIPA Campus, IP Estate; M.G. Marg, New Delhi-110002 (India); Phones: 011-23358166, 23321610; Fax:011-23765410; Website : isleijle.org; E-mail: [email protected]
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 1
REGIONS AND CRISES: EUROPEAN AND ASIAN ECONOMIC
GOVERNANCE
Petr Blizkovsky 1
Macro-regions are experiencing regional crises. Interestingly, macro-regions are also able to
react in terms of policy responses. This article addresses economic governance against the
backdrop of two macro-regional cooperation models, in the European Union and in ASEAN.
Economic governance is arguably the critical missing element in the current economic
globalisation. The gap between market-driven sources - which contributed massively in the last
decades to welfare gains globally, and to Asia in particular –and suboptimal regulatory
coordination is a risky element. There is an absence of efficient economic governance or
cooperation at the macro-regional level and globally. The European Union and ASEAN are
examples of two different models of economic governance. Both of them represent an unfinished
project. Nevertheless, they both offer experience from which global economic governance or
economic governance in other macro-regions can benefit. In the end, the question is not whether
there is a need for global economic governance but rather: governance of what, between whom
and how far it should go.
INTRODUCTION
The world has changed considerably in last two decades. Politically, the period was marked in
Europe by the end of the cold war and of central governance, and in Asia by more market-friendly
reforms in several important countries. So, one can argue that the world has become a safer and
better place in recent times, notwithstanding sporadic incidences in specific hotspots. However,
from an economic perspective, we can see a dichotomy in this. On the one hand, economic growth
experienced exponential development over the last twenty years. GDP has grown considerably in
the developed economies and even more in the emerging countries. International trade has soared
to new heights. Welfare gains of the economic progress have been considerable and it seems that
globalisation has worked for most. However, on the other hand, there is a risk-related issue present
now. Various regions of the world have recently been attacked by the financial crisis. This
financial and debt crisis has negative implications for social policies and macroeconomic stability.
The movement of goods, services and capital has increased and become globalised but the
regulatory and institutional framework in which the market forces are operating is lagging behind
the globalisation of markets. In this article we argue that the new economic challenge of the
current stage of globalisation lies in governance. How to improve economic governance in the
multi-polar world while preserving the sovereignty of states? What model of cooperation is
appropriate and manageable at the current juncture? In this article we bring together the key
lessons from two macro-regional cooperation models – the cooperation between the nations
belonging to the European Union and those within the ASEAN. Both came from different starting
points and have different levels of ambitions, yet are examples of economic governance and
1 Petr Blizkovsky is Director at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. The opinions
expressed in this article are personal of the author alone and does not represent the views of the organisation he works for.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 2
regional cooperation models. In this, they represent useful inspiration for the global model of
governance and lessons learnt may be replicated on a larger scale.
THE CASE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Economic governance represents a complex set of rules and procedures. Its aim is to assist
economic growth and provide stability in the EU as a whole. The rationale for economic
governance in the EU is to avoid or minimise negative slipovers among Member States. The most
visible cornerstone of economic coordination in the EU is the European Economic and Monetary
Union (EMU), agreed in the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992. The scope of economic governance in
the EU covers macroeconomic policy coordination, the single monetary policy for the euro area
Member States, coordination on microeconomic policies, the regulation of financial services, the
regulation and coordination of tax policies, support schemes and coordination of policies for
international fora. Let us explore the performance of the EU in each of these areas.
Macroeconomic policy coordination
Macroeconomic policy coordination remains the responsibility of Member States, which are
legally obliged to coordinate it within the EU. It is important to note that all Member States
subscribed to the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) which stipulates that they should aim for a
budgetary position close to balance, or in surplus, over the medium-term in a period of normal
economic growth. They are also obliged to avoid an excessive deficit above 3% of GDP. In the
case of the UK, such an obligation strictly speaking does not exist (one may see Protocol 15 of the
Treaties). Member States should also have maximum 60% of government debt of GDP according
to the SGP. However, this criterion has not been made operational. The Pact contains a preventive
and a corrective arm, under which sanctions are foreseen.
The recent financial, economic and debt crisis of the EU triggered the creation of further
instruments and changed the European Union economic governance (Begg et al, 2011). The key
instruments that came into existence have been mentioned in a later section.
Monetary Policy
The EU Member States agreed to create a single monetary policy. This policy was confirmed by
the European Central Bank and European System of Central Banks. The creation of this single
currency was conceived without obliging all Member States to join at the same time. Two
countries were granted an "opt-out" clause from the common policy (the United Kingdom and
Denmark).
As conditions for adopting the euro, the Treaty established five convergence criteria for countries:
• maximum 3% of budget deficit of GDP
• maximum 60% of government debt of GDP
• inflation no higher than 1.5% above the average inflation of the three best performing countries
• long-term interest rates no more than 2% above the three best performing countries
• a two-year period without devaluation
• independence of the national central bank.
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 3
Coordination of Microeconomic Policies
In order to ensure the coordination of the macro- and microeconomic policies of Member States,
the EU established a system of multilateral surveillance of economic policies conducted by
Member States. The economic policies of the individual Member States are regarded as a matter of
common concern and are coordinated within the Council. To this end, the Council formulates
Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (Articles 120–26 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU
(TFEU)). From a legal standpoint, therefore, the EU already has in place a legal base from which
to carry out macroeconomic surveillance. It covers a broad range of issues including
macroeconomic imbalances. However, this is not a mechanism which foresees sanctions and its
implementation record is mixed.
Table 1 Overview of economic governance in the European Union
Area of governance Nature Instrument Implementation Monetary policy Legislative Delegated power, single currency Strong
Economic policy
coordination
Political Stability and Growth Pact Mixed
Legislative Secondary legislation, Excessive
Deficit Procedure
Mixed so far,
new measures
Recommendatory
Lisbon strategy, EU 2020, Broad
Economic Policy Guidelines,
Integrated Guidelines
Mixed so far,
new measures
to be taken
Legislative or
administrative National budgetary frameworks To come
Regulatory framework
for financial services Legislative Secondary law
Strong
Regulatory framework
in tax policy
Legislative and
political Secondary law, agreements Mixed
Stability measures Legislative Budgetary support for the non-euro
area members Strong
International
coordination Political
Terms of Reference for international
fora (G20, IMF) Soft
In order to strengthen economic policy coordination, the EU agreed to the political peer pressure
exercise of the Lisbon strategy (in 2000) and of the EU 2020 (in 2020). The objectives of these are
structural reforms, a move towards research and development, sustainable growth in terms of the
environment, and social parameters. This instrument has no legal enforceability but regular
reforms screening and evaluation push Member States towards a more competitive economy.
However, the track record so far has been mixed.
Legislation for financial services and taxation
On top of this, the EU has legally binding rules and procedures for adopting legislation. These
cover the single market and include legislation in financial services (banking, insurance, capital
markets). In this area, the Council is a co-legislator together with the European Parliament. The
law, once adopted, is enforceable and, in the case of complaints, the European Court of Justice
provides its judgement. Similarly, the European Union adopts secondary law in the area of
taxation. It also coordinates direct tax policy in a soft way. The Council decides by unanimity and
the European Parliament only provides its opinion.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 4
International coordination
Apart from the measures described above, the EU has at its disposal the stability instrument for
Member States confronted with balance of payment difficulties.
The economic governance of the EU thus can be seen as bold and strong, taking into account the
fact that economic policy still remains the responsibility of Member States (Table 1).
RECENT MEASURES IN EU GOVERNANCE
In the aftermath of the economic crisis, several new measures have been taken to strengthen the
EU economic governance (Bishop, G. 2011, COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2010).
These measures include the following:
• The creation of short-term crisis resolution mechanisms within the euro area. These take
various forms, such as ad hoc facility to support Greece, as a company under private law
and owned by the euro area countries
• The creation of a permanent crisis resolution mechanism within the euro area - the
European Stability Mechanism. This should be operational as of mid-2013. The
resolution mechanisms are compatible with Article 125 of the Treaty, the so-called "bail
out-clause" which specifically forbids that either the Union or Member States should be
liable for or assume obligations of euro area Member States.
• A limited Treaty change to allow the creation of the European Stability Mechanism
(EURO AREA, 2011). The new provision concerns Article 136 of the TFEU which states
that Member States whose currency is the euro may establish amongst themselves a
stability mechanism. The amended Treaty should enter in force on 1 January 2013.
• Strengthening of the Stability and Growth Pact through stricter monitoring of the
adjustment path of Member States towards their medium-term budgetary objectives. In
this context, alongside an analysis of the structural balance, the assessment of expenditure
developments will play an important role.
• Introducing the possibility to impose sanctions already in the preventive part of the
Stability and Growth Pact expecting that the adjustment towards the medium-term
objective (MTO) will be faster for high-debt countries.
• Adopting national budgetary frameworks which establish minimum requirements for the
budgetary frameworks of Member States including reporting requirements which will
allow the Commission to better monitor the evolution of the budget in Member States at
the various government levels.
• Implementing a surveillance framework for the monitoring and correction of excessive
imbalances. This Excessive Imbalances Procedure (EIP) consists in principle of three
parts, namely surveillance, alert and sanctions. It addresses potentially harmful
imbalances via a combination of indicators and alert thresholds included in a scoreboard,
and simultaneous a Commission analysis.
• The European Semester as a tool for stronger community involvement in the preparation
of national budgets. It brings together the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (including
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 5
the employment guidelines) and the review of the Stability or Convergence programmes
in a single text for each Member State.
• The Euro Plus Pact - 23 Member States committed to increasing competitiveness,
fostering employment, reinforcing financial stability, and improving the state of public
finances, especially in the pension sector.
• Creating Euro Summit meetings of Heads of State or Government of the euro area. This
body will provide better guidance for the euro area.
These additional governance measures are presented in Table 2.
Table 2 Overview of the Additional Economic Governance Measures in the Euro Area
Area of governance Nature Instrument Implementation
Economic policy
coordination
Legislative Excessive Imbalances Procedure To come
Political Euro Plus Pact In the process
Stability measures
Legislative European Financial Stability
Mechanism
Strong
Ad hoc agreement Assistance to Greece Strong
Intergovernmental
agreement
European Financial Stability
Facility Strong
International Treaty European Stability Mechanism Strong (to come)
As a result of these recently added measures and conditions, the actors involved in economic
governance are becoming multiple. There is however a flexible geometry approach to the whole
governance pattern. According to the shared sovereignty and legal framework, the different actors
decide on different measures. Table 3 presents an overview of this approach.
Table 3 Overview of the Economic Governance Geometry in the European Union
Number of Member
States Body Role, Instrument Presidency
27
European Council Policy guidance Fixed term
Council Legislator/Co-Legislator Rotating
European Parliament Co-Legislator Fixed term
17
Euro Summit Policy guidance, decisions Election
Eurogroup Informal meeting, guidance of the euro area Fixed term
17
European Financial Stability Facility board meeting
European Financial Stability Facility decisions
Economic and Financial Committee of the EU (EFC)
16 Ad hoc facility Assistance to Greece Eurogroup Chair
23 plus Euro Plus Pact meeting
Euro Plus Pact, open to observers
Election (Euro Summit Chair)
17 plus European Stability Mechanism board
European Stability Mechanism decisions, open to other Members
Eurogroup Chair or election
Finally, in the complex situation of the economic crisis, the EU and its Member States have
developed a series of instruments (see also Featherstone, K., 2011, Verhelst, S., 2011). These vary
in scope and nature. An overview of the instruments is presented in Table 4.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 6
Table 4 Overview of Aid Schemes under EU
Name Nature Legal basis Financing Beneficiaries Financial
means (EUR bn)
Activity timeframe
BoP
Balance of
payments
assistance
European Union
instrument
(Council
Regulation
332/2002)
Treaty on the
Functioning
of the EU,
Article 143
Loans from the
European
Commission
guaranteed by
the EU budget
Non-euro area
Member States
(currently
Hungary, Latvia,
Romania)
50 No limit
EFSM
European
Financial
Stabilisation
Mechanism
European Union
instrument
(Council
Regulation
407/10)
Treaty on the
Functioning
of the EU,
Article 122
(2)
Loans from the
European
Commission
guaranteed by
the EU budget
EU Member
States (currently
Ireland)
60
No limit.
Expected to
expire with
the
activation of
the ESM
Stability
support to
Greece
Intergovernmental
instrument
International
agreement
Loans from 14
Member States Greece 80
One-off
facility
EFSF
European
Financial
Stability
Facility1
Intergovernmental
instrument under
private law
International
agreement
EFSF bonds,
guaranteed by
the
shareholders
Euro area
Member States
(currently
Ireland,
Portugal)
780
(maximum
guaranties)
440
(effective
lending
capacity)
Until mid-
2013
ESM
European
Stability
Mechanism2
International
financial
organisation
International
Treaty on
ESM
Loans and
direct public
bond
purchasing by
euro area
Member States
(non-euro area
Member States
may join on a
case-by-case
basis)
Euro area
Member States
700
(authorised
capital
stock)
500
(maximum
lending
capacity)
As of mid-
2013
ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION – A SUMMARY
We have so far explained the complexity of economic governance in the European Union. The
European Union represents the most developed and deep form of macro-regional cooperation. The
unprecedented voluntary sharing of sovereignty among Member States results in the robust
economic governance of the 27 Member States in terms of economic law-making and its effective
implementation. On top of this, 17 Member States, at this stage, share the single currency and
agreed to share fully their sovereignty in the monetary policy. The track record of this exercise is
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 7
very positive: the euro achieved its global position, it has a strong and stable exchange rate and it
is a low-inflation currency.
The track record on the economic governance of the economic policies remains however mixed.
The rules of public policy coordination, and the Stability and Growth Pact and the legislation
linked to it, have a sound economic logic. However their implementation has been far from
optimal. Also, the peer pressure to harmonise structural reforms and enhance economic
competitiveness has not been efficient.
The current economic crisis triggered the creation of new elements of economic governance. New
players and instruments have been put in place. Their objective is to strengthen the coexisting
legislative framework and coordinate economic policies more closely, namely among the euro
Area countries.
For economic governance, this means that there are now two types of governance: hard
(regulatory) and soft (incentive). The first happens under a legal framework and is of a
compulsory nature under the sanctions and ruling of the Court of Justice regime. The second is
based on political agreement. There are no sanctions related to it. Another new characteristic of
economic governance is its variable geometry, meaning that different Member States subscribed to
different instruments. The result is that, on top of the community method, there is now a sphere of
inter-governmental approach or alternatively an approach based on the new international Treaty
(Euro Area 2011) in parallel to the Treaty on the European Union.
THE CASE OF ASEAN
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is another example of macro-regional
cooperation. It has its own economic governance model. This model was subject to adjustment
after the economic crisis in the region in the last decade. The ASEAN is also reacting to the
current global economic crisis by stepping up its economic governance framework (Institute of
South Asian Studies, ISEAS, 2010; Koh, T., Manalo, R.G. and Woon, W., 2009; Severino, R.C.,
Thomson, E. and Hong, M. 2010; The Association of Southeast Asian Nations Secretariat 2010).
The ASEAN was established in 1967 with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration (Bangkok
Declaration) by the Founding Fathers of ASEAN, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Thailand. Brunei Darussalam then joined on 7 January 1984, Viet Nam on 28 July
1995, Lao PDR and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999, making up what
are today the ten Member States of ASEAN.
The mission of the ASEAN economic cooperation (as set out in the ASEAN Declaration) is to
accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region through joint
endeavours, in the spirit of equality and partnership, in order to strengthen the foundation for a
prosperous and peaceful community of Southeast Asian Nations.
At the initial stage, economic coordination had a soft character based on political agreement.
Subsequently, as part of the Vientiane Action Programme, adopted by ASEAN at the Tenth
ASEAN Summit in Laos in November 2004, ASEAN agreed to work towards the development of
an ASEAN Charter. The Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Establishment of the ASEAN Charter
in December 2005, and the Cebu Declaration on the Blueprint of the ASEAN Charter in January
2007 further developed the process of drafting the ASEAN Charter. The ASEAN Charter serves as
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 8
a firm foundation in achieving the ASEAN Community by providing a legal status and
institutional framework for ASEAN. It also codifies ASEAN norms, rules and values, sets clear
targets for ASEAN, and presents accountability and compliance.
The ASEAN Charter entered into force on 15 December 2008 and has become a legally binding
agreement among the 10 ASEAN Member States. The ASEAN Charter is essentially the
Constitution of ASEAN. Amongst other things, the Charter: sets out the guiding principles
governing how ASEAN will conduct its affairs; confers a legal personality on ASEAN as a legal
entity in its own right; establishes the organs through which ASEAN will act; and institutes a
formal structure for decision-making.
The importance of the ASEAN Charter can be seen in the context of the political commitment at
the top level, the new legal framework, including the legal personality, and the creation of new
ASEAN bodies. The Charter creates a framework within which ASEAN Member States can enter
into substantive agreements on specific areas, such as economic integration, environmental
protection and climate change, equitable development, transnational crime and security. An
example of this is the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, which sets out detailed timelines
for a greater integration of ASEAN’s economies. The structure and organs set up by the ASEAN
Charter will play a critical role in ensuring the success of the Blueprint’s ambitious target of
establishing the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.
At the 9th ASEAN Summit in 2003, the ASEAN Leaders decided to create the ASEAN
Community. At the 12th ASEAN Summit in January 2007, the Leaders affirmed their
commitment, and signed the Declaration, on the Acceleration of the Establishment of an ASEAN
Community by 2015. Each pillar has its own Blueprint and, together with the Initiative for
ASEAN Integration (IAI), the Strategic Framework and IAI Work Plan Phase II (2009-2015), they
form the Roadmap for an ASEAN Community 2009-2015 (ASEAN Studies Centre, 2009).
The ASEAN Community is comprised of three pillars:
• ASEAN Political-Security Community
• ASEAN Economic Community
• ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community
Let us briefly explore each of them.
ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)
Looking at economic governance, the mission of the AEC is to create a stable, prosperous and
competitive ASEAN economic region in which there is a free flow of capital, economic
development and a reduction in socio-economic disparities (Sim, E.W. 2009;The Association of
Southeast Asian Nations 2008). The AEC plans to establish ASEAN as a single market production
base, turning the diversity that characterises the region into opportunities for business
complementation making ASEAN a more dynamic and stronger segment of the global supply
chain.
The AEC areas of cooperation would include: human resource development and capacity building;
recognition of professional qualifications; closer consultation on macroeconomic and financial
policies; trade financing measures; enhanced infrastructure and communications connectivity;
development of electronic transactions through e-ASEAN; integrating industries across the region
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 9
to promote regional sourcing; and enhancing private sector involvement to build the AEC. In
short, the AEC will transform ASEAN into a region with free movement of goods, services,
investment and skilled labour, and a freer flow of capital.
The ASEAN Leaders adopted the ASEAN Economic Blueprint at the 13th ASEAN Summit on 20
November 2007 in Singapore to serve as a plan guiding the establishment of the ASEAN
Economic Community 2015. The realisation of the AEC in 2015 should open up opportunities for
socio-economic growth.
The implementation of regional commitments has been generally positive. However, several areas
need to be addressed by ASEAN Member States for a timely implementation to avoid a backlog of
unimplemented commitments with the onset of more new commitments and measures, including
those based on the AEC Blueprint, in the years to come. The completion of measures within the
targeted deadlines is critical to ensure ASEAN Member States comply with the AEC Blueprint.
Economic and financial governance in the ASEAN and ASEAN Plus Three (APT)
Over the last few years the institutionalisation of the APT process has started to take shape.
Government leaders, ministers and senior officials from the 10 members of the ASEAN and the
three Northeast Asian states — China, Japan, and South Korea — that together comprise the
participants in the process are consulting on an increasing range of issues (Majid, S., 2009;
Pradumna, B. R. 2002; Welfens, P.J.J., Ryan, C., Chirathivat, S. and Knipping, F. 2009). The
APT’s emergence raises questions about relations between it and other regional groupings such as
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and ASEAN itself, as well as about the
overall prospects for its future development. Since the process began in 1997, the APT
cooperation has broadened and deepened. Cooperation is now being pursued in a number of areas.
Financial governance
Under the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, ASEAN envisages to achieve integrated
financial and capital markets by 2015. The objective is to create a more integrated and smoothly
functioning regional financial system, with more liberalised capital account regimes and
interlinked capital markets, which will facilitate greater trade and investment flows in the region.
As indicated in the Roadmap for Monetary and Financial Integration of ASEAN (RIA-Fin), as
evident from the Joint Media Statement of the 13th AEM+3 Consultations on 26 August 2010 in
Da Nang, Viet Nam, financial integration in ASEAN is to be facilitated through the following
initiatives:
• Financial Services Liberalisation: progressive liberalisation of financial services by 2015,
except for those sub-sectors and modes where pre-agreed flexibilities will be determined.
Five rounds of negotiations have been completed with binding commitments from each
ASEAN Member State to liberalise their financial services regime.
• Capital Account Liberalisation: removal of capital controls and restrictions to facilitate
freer flow of capital, including elimination of restrictions on current account transactions
and FDI and portfolio flows (inflows and outflows).
• Capital Market Development: build capacity and lay the long-term infrastructure for the
development of ASEAN capital markets, with the long-term goal of achieving cross-
border collaboration between the various capital markets in ASEAN. An
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 10
“Implementation Plan for an Integrated Capital Market” has been developed to enhance
market access, linkages and liquidity.
In terms of economic governance there are several initiatives to support financial stability in East
Asia. They comprise of the following measures.
Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation
The Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) is a USD 120 billion currency swap facility
involving the central banks and finance ministries of ASEAN, China, Japan and the Republic of
Korea (ASEAN+3), and the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong, China. It came into effect on 24
March 2010. The CMIM evolved from a network of bilateral currency swaps that first began in
2002. The decision to transform them into a multilateral currency swap contract was made in 2006
when the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers recognised the need to facilitate prompt and simultaneous
currency swap transactions by establishing a common-decision making mechanism under a single
contract.
The initiative began as a series of bilateral swap arrangements after the ASEAN+3 countries met
on 6 May 2000 at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development
Bank in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, member countries started
this initiative to manage regional short-term liquidity problems and facilitate the work of other
international financial arrangements and organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.
As of 16 October 2009, the network consisted of 16 bilateral arrangements among the ASEAN+3
countries worth approximately USD 90 billion. Additionally, the ASEAN Swap Arrangement had
a reserve pool of approximately USD 2 billion. In February 2009, ASEAN+3 agreed to expand the
fund to USD 120 billion up from the original level of USD 78 billion proposed in 2008. During
the April 2009 meeting of ASEAN finance ministers in Pattaya, Thailand, the individual
contributions to be made by each member state toward the reserve pool were announced. The
Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) Agreement was signed on 28 December 2009
and later came into effect on 24 March 2010.
Each CMIM participant is entitled to swap its local currency with US dollars up to a multiple of its
contribution. Under the CMIM, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea contributed USD 96
billion, while ASEAN countries as a group contributed USD 24 billion (Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand contributed USD 4.77 billion each, the Philippines USD 3.68 billion,
In this section the factors affecting probability of consuming recommended calories have been
probed through a logistic regression (Table 8). Our results clearly show that probability of getting
recommended calories is quite low among all weaker socio-economic groups. For example, as the
family size increases, the likelihood of consuming recommended calories declines which exhibits
poor nutritional conditions of bigger households. The households covering more than 8 members
in the family exhibit higher probability (odd ratio 3.15) of being calorie deprived than the small
families having 1-4 members. Among social groups, ST are worst affected as the probability of
consuming recommended calories is very low compared to other social groups. SC people
however have lower likelihood (1.35 odd ratios) of being calorie deprived than ST (1.52 odd
ratios). Regarding religious group, Muslims suffer badly as they have higher probability of being
calorie deprived than the Hindus whereas Christians (0.853 odd ratio) and other religion people
(0.671 odd ratio) enjoy better calorie intake than the Hindus. Education level plays an important
role to determine calorie intake. It has been analysed that as the level of education increases, the
likelihood of consuming calories from the norm also rises. Highly educated people show more
chances of taking recommended calories than the other lower education group people.
Considering the probability of calorie intake among occupation groups, agricultural labourers and
other labourers have lesser probability of consuming recommended calories than the employed in
non-agriculture. Self employed in agriculture and other occupation groups have more chances of
becoming energy sufficient than those who are not self employed in agriculture. As far as poverty
level is concerned, people below the poverty line have a much higher likelihood of being calorie
deprived (14.146 odd ratios) than the Above Poverty Line category people.
The probability of consuming recommended calories across different geographical regions of rural
India show that compared to central region (covering states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh), all regions show lower likelihood to consume recommended calories. Among them
north eastern, western and southern region covering states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala exhibit more chances of being calorie deprived from
recommended calories. Northern and eastern states such as Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa and Bihar show lower probability of calorie deprived than
the other regions. However, these regions are prone to calorie deprivation when compared with
central region. A relatively lower likelihood of being calorie deprived is resulted by higher
consumption of cereals.
CONCLUSION
From this analysis it is found that over a decade (1994-2005) the consumption pattern of Indians
has changed significantly. Consumption of cereals, particularly coarse cereals, has declined
whereas consumption of other food items such as vegetables, fruits, milk and milk products, meat
increased slightly which have a direct bearing on nutrient intake. Due to decline in cereal
consumption and lower increase in consumption of other food items nutrient pattern in rural India
has also changed substantially. Share of cereals particularly coarse cereals to total calories has
declined whereas calories from oil and fat have increased. Since cereals are also a good source of
protein but its decline has also led to lowering down of protein. In rural India on an average per
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 31
capita per day calorie and protein intake is falling and consumption of oil and fat is increasing.
This, to some extent, is as per the expenditure of dietary transition models. However, given the
relative underperformance of India in the nutrition front, this decline in cereal consumption has
often been viewed as deterioration in the living standard of the poor. The disaggregated analysis of
calorie and nutrition deficiency in rural India carried out in this study clearly points out that
deprivation is higher among marginalized social and economic groups. It is the poor, SC and ST
groups, agricultural labourers who suffer most in terms of calorie deprivation.
There is much gap in official poverty and calorie deprivation level. We have estimated both
poverty and calorie deprivation across social groups. Those having bigger families, less education,
lower MPCE and those belonging to ST, SC, agricultural labour and other labour class, Muslims
are found to have higher levels of poverty as well as calorie deprivation. Thus, in terms of
distribution of deprivation across social and economic groups, there is a consistency between
poverty and calorie deprivation although the levels are quite different in many cases. The interstate
variations, however, does not show much consistency. The southern states particularly Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh perform poor on more than two deprivation indicators. Gujarat and
Maharashtra, considered as relatively developed states perform worse on both methods of poverty
measurement. On the other hand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana
are best performing states in all deprivation measures. From a regional point of view, it is found
that most of the NSS regions having majority of population being calorie deprived than
recommendation fall in the southern, western and central parts of India. All the southern states
except Kerala and including Gujarat and Maharashtra presents maximum decline in calorie and
protein intake from the recommendation whereas Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir
and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan show lower decline in calories and in fact increase in
protein intake. These states also show lower level of calorie deprivation and poverty.
The exercise undertaken to show probability of being calorie deprived concludes that never
married, big families, less educated, lower MPCE class, ST, SC, agricultural labour and other
labour class, Muslims, people living below poverty line and southern, north-eastern and western
states are some weaker sections and regions which are comparatively more prone to be poor and
undernourished than their respective reference categories. The debate so far has concentrated on
the observed divergence between poverty estimates and calorie deprivation. Our analysis,
however, points out that it is the relatively marginalized social and economic groups who face
greater calorie deprivation. Thus, there is an urgent need to focus on such high levels of
deprivation among the marginalized groups and regions.
_________________________________
Notes 1. Calorie norm has officially been taken to measure poverty level in India. Per capita per day intake of
2400 kcal for rural and 2100 kcal for urban areas are the norms to estimate poverty. Planning Commission makes adjustment in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL) and Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (CPIIW) to the base year poverty line (1973-74) for estimating rural and urban poverty respectively. Planning Commission’s estimation of poverty using indirect method shows lower level of poverty whereas directly using calorie norm to measure poverty gives a much higher level of deprivation.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 32
2. Food items have been converted into nutritive values using the standard units given in report no. 513(61/1.0/6) Nutritional Intake In India (2004-2005), NSS 61st round National Sample Survey Organisation, Ministry Of Statistics & Programme Implementation Government of India.
3. For further details on measurement of official poverty line in India and changes in it, see Utsa Patnaik, 2007.
4. Standard Calories are given in the Report of the Export Group on Estimation of Proportion and Number of Poor. Perspective Planning Division. Planning Commission, 1993 - 2400 kcal per capita for rural area and 2100 kcal for urban area and standard protein intake is recommended in report on ‘Nutritional Status of Rural Population’ by National Institute of Nutrition (1996) Indian Council of Medical Research, Nutritional Status of rural population, Report of the NNMB surveys, National Nutritional Monitoring Bureau, Hyderabad.
5. Official poverty has been calculated using the report of ‘Poverty Estimates For 2004-05’ Government of India Press Information Bureau [Online at] planningcommission.nic.in/news/prmar07.pdf , Accessed on 12/03/2010 at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
6. The correlation between Below poverty line (BPL) and Below 2400 kcal is 0.472 (significant at 0.05 level) which is low as compared to correlation between BPL and Children underweight below 3 (0.733, significant at 0.01 level) and between BPL and Body Mass Index of Women (0.622, significant at 0.01 level).
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JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 34
The Koshal Development Forum (KDF) is an informal research forum initiated
by the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University belonging to the Koshal region
of Orissa (Anugul, Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Debagarh, Jharsuguda,
Mean TE (%) 63.24 Minimum TE (%) 32.70 Maximum TE (%) 97.10 Standard Deviation of Firm Specific TE 13.25
Source: Authors’ estimates based on primary data using FRONTIER 4.1.
Finally, the partial elasticities of output with respect to inputs computed on the basis of the
estimated parameters of the translog production function are presented in Table 7. Cultivated area
has the highest elasticity value (0.62) among all inputs. This is followed by human labour. The
remaining inputs considered in the study such as equipments, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides
have negligible elasticity values. The returns to scale or the scale elasticity of output (which is the
sum of the partial input elasticities) turns out to be 0.869 which is less than unity. This is
indicative of decreasing returns to scale. This is a consequence of poor output elasticities with
respect to equipments, irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. Arguably this is a consistent finding
in the context of the present study where personal or privately organised irrigation is relatively
expensive (if not beyond the financial capability of most cultivators) and its use is infrequent.
Furthermore controlled use of fertilizers and pesticides are rare in the sense that their application
per bigha, on most occasions, fall far below standard agricultural prescriptions yielding
suboptimal results. It is to be noted in this context that only 7.8 percent of the sample cultivators
have access to mechanized equipments like tractors and hand tillers. The district level picture is
even grimmer. Holders of mechanized equipments are actually confined to the 35 bighas and
above size classes. Consequently the smaller size classes of cultivators cannot reap the advantages
of mechanized devices and hence consume more labour time and cost (including animal and
human labour effort) in land tilling and combing during the beginning of the cropping season.
We separately computed the size-class wise mean technical efficiencies. The sub-marginal,
marginal and small sized cultivators have mean technical efficiency (within the class) of 54.2, 66.1
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 47
and 64.8 percent respectively. On the other hand semi-medium, medium and large sized
cultivators have mean technical efficiency of 69.3, 78.5 and 78.7 percent respectively. The
simple correlation coefficient between area cultivated and percentage technical efficiency turns
out to be -0.57 for the entire sample. Clearly there is an inverse association between farm size and
technical efficiency. The correlation coefficient between yield per bigha and area cultivated is -
0.02 which is statistically insignificant. Thus, for the present sample there is no pronounced
association between farm size and yield per bigha.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The present study measures farm level technical efficiency of paddy cultivators in Hailakandi
district of Assam by adopting a stochastic production frontier with inefficiency effects for cross-
sectional data. The stochastic frontier and the inefficiency effects parameters are simultaneously
estimated using maximum likelihood method (Battese and Coelli, 1995). A transcendental
logarithmic production frontier is adopted due to its flexibility. With due reservations, the study is
based on paddy output of the peak agricultural season of 2009-10 (i.e., winter paddy or Shali)
only. Area sown, labour, irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers are the key inputs assumed to explain
farm output. As per district level agricultural records, farm mechanization and automation are too
rare to be considered as inputs for the sample of cultivators chosen in the present study. A host of
non-input factors which usually affect farm level technical efficiency are assumed to explain inter-
farm variations in the level of technical efficiency.
All five blocks of Hailakandi district were selected for the study. Approximately 30 percent of the
Gram Panchayats (G.P.s) under each block were randomly selected. One best village in terms of
agricultural performance of the last cropping season (as per secondary information) was randomly
chosen out of the three best villages from each of the selected G.P.s. Considering the
overwhelming population of small and marginal farmers in the district all size classes of
cultivators were appropriately included from selected villages in order to draw a representative
sample of 265 cultivators covering all blocks.
The principal findings of the study are more or less obvious in the context of traditional and
backward agriculture where small plots are predominant, mechanized farming is rare and
irrigation infrastructure is poor and thus mono-cropping is the most common practice. A
noteworthy finding is that semi-medium and medium size classes of cultivators dominate the
sample in terms of land holding. Semi-medium and medium sized cultivators comprise only 35
percent of sample cultivators but together enjoy around 73 percent of operational holdings in the
sample.
Turning to the estimates of trans-log production function parameters, the constant term is found to
be insignificant. So are the coefficients of irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. Cultivated area is
statistically the most significant factor that determines output. This is followed by human labour
and traditional firm equipments. Moreover, all the interaction terms are not only statistically
insignificant but have extremely small values and hence play a very negligible role in determining
the elasticities of output with respect to factors. The elasticities of output with respect to inputs
are more important and are computed from the estimated parameters of the translog production
function. Cultivated area has the highest elasticity value (0.62) among all other inputs. This is
followed by human labour. The remaining inputs consider in the study such as equipments,
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 48
irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides have negligible elasticities. The scale elasticity of output is less
than unity which clearly indicates decreasing returns to variable inputs.
Poor scale elasticity is primarily due to the poor output elasticities with respect to almost all
inputs. Arguably this is consistent in the context of backward agriculture where personally
organized irrigation is beyond the financial capability of most cultivators and thus its use is rare.
Moreover controlled use of fertilizers and pesticides are irregular and their application per bigha,
are on most occasions, far below standard agricultural prescriptions leading to suboptimal results.
These factors might explain the poor sensitivity of output with respect to inputs with the exception
of cultivated area.
The null hypothesis of no technical inefficiency in the data was statistically tested using
Likelihood Ratio Test. The results strongly indicate that technical inefficiency is present in the
data set. This further implies that traditional least squares method would be inappropriate to
estimate parameters of the production function. This is also apparent from the statistically
significant values of the variance parameters of the stochastic frontier model.
The influences of non-input factors on farm level technical inefficiency are crucial in the present
study. Among the non-input factors, years of formal education in the cultivator’s household
positively influences technical efficiency but the coefficient is found to be statistically
insignificant. The coefficient of government support dummy is also found to be statistically
insignificant thereby indicating that government support is rather unimportant. However both
indebtedness (as measured by outstanding loans) and percentage of self consumption of farm
produce have negative influences on technical efficiency. However, percentage of land leased-in
by the cultivator has a positive impact on technical efficiency and the coefficient is found to be
significant. Age (a proxy for experience in this study) of the cultivator has a positive impact on
technical efficiency. That is the older and more experienced farmers are technically more
efficient. This is in line with the findings of Wadud and White (2002) for Bangladeshi paddy
farmers. The coefficient of HYV dummy turns out to be negative and significant at 5 percent level
implying that HYV cultivation has a positive influence on technical efficiency. The average
technical efficiency of HYV cultivators is 74 percent while that of cultivators of traditional seeds
is around 62 percent showing thereby that HYV cultivators are more efficient.
The size-class wise mean technical efficiencies were separately computed. The sub-marginal,
marginal and small sized cultivators have mean technical efficiency (within the class) of 54.2, 66.1
and 64.8 percent respectively. But semi-medium, medium and large sized cultivators have mean
technical efficiency of 69.3, 78.5 and 78.7 percent respectively which is clearly higher than the
lower size classes. Mean technical efficiency for the whole sample is approximately 69 percent.
The simple correlation coefficient between cultivated area and percentage technical efficiency is -
0.57 thereby indicating an inverse association between farm size and technical efficiency. The
correlation coefficient between yield per bigha and area cultivated is -0.02 which shows the
absence of any significant association between farm size and yield per bigha.
On the basis of the key findings of the study we arrive at the following policy suggestions some of
which are rather obvious given the backwardness of agriculture as well as infrastructure in the
region. First, mono-cropping is prevalent in the region and one of the key reasons clearly being
absence of planned canal irrigation. This is all the more surprising as because there already exists
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 49
a network of small rivers and canals which overflow during monsoons due to their meandering
nature and heavy siltation. Needless to say, these small rivers and canals need urgent dredging. If
area under planned canal irrigation is expanded, yield may be increased besides raising cropping
intensity which is vital for overall annual production at the district level. Second, educational
attainments at the household level are important. Lack of literacy and education may be major
obstacles for learning new farming methods, accessing bank credits, bargaining and negotiating
during marketing of produce, etc. An educated cultivator is at a relative advantage on various
accounts. It is thus important to educate farmers and raise their awareness levels. In view of the
poor district level overall literacy rate, there is an enormous scope of improvement in this regard.
Third, the level of indebtedness seems to have a negative influence on farm level technical
efficiency. For the present sample only about 21 percent of cultivators have received credits from
Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). Informal money lenders still dominate the agricultural credit
market in backward states and Hailakandi district of Assam is no exception. These money lenders
often govern the decision making of small farmers as because they lend small sums of money at
exorbitantly high interest rates. The timing of sowing is largely dependent upon credit availability
during the beginning of the cropping season. These money lenders also play an active role in
ensuring that farmers actually do not get access to agricultural credit through the NABARD
controlled district level RRBs namely the Gramin Vikas Banks. In addition these money lenders
are on most occasions, influential political representatives at the Panchayat level. The more
indebted farmers have limited chance of receiving additional credits from money lenders and
consequently their capacity to purchase inputs during the beginning of the cropping season
become limited. Thus farmer’s distress and indebtedness are responsible to a large extent for
mistimed purchase and application of inputs. It is hence not surprising that more indebted
cultivators are technically less efficient. Here in lies the scope and importance of direct
government intervention in providing farm credit which is totally lacking in the district at present.
Timely credit may raise both yield and efficiency of the cultivators. Finally it is found that
cultivators of HYV seeds are technically more efficient. We found out during the course of our
field survey that most of the smaller size classes of cultivators do not get access to the HYV seeds.
These seeds have to be freshly purchased in the beginning of every cropping season and storage of
a part of previous season’s output does not have the same high yielding property and therefore
does not serve the purpose of the HYV cultivators. Thus the state agricultural department needs to
provide a steady supply of HYV seeds at the beginning of every cropping season. Also, the
delivery mechanism has to be efficient such that the disregarding their financial capability,
majority of the cultivators have access to HYV seeds. Finally, if these policy suggestions are
implemented at the district level, then yield per bigha may be expected to grow many folds,
thereby raising regional agricultural surpluses.
_______________________________
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Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 51
Appendix 1
The Trans-log Stochastic Production Frontier
The stochastic production frontier developed separately by Aigner, Lovell and Schmidt (1977) and
Meeusen and van den Broeck (1977) decomposes the error term of the usual econometric
production function model into a white random noise component and a one sided inefficiency
random component. For the present, we assume a cross-sectional stochastic production frontier
model (specified in Kumbhakar et al, 1991) as
ln ln ( ; )i i i
y f x v uβ= + − (1.1)
i i iu zγ ε′= + (1.2)
The random noise component in the production process is introduced through the error component
iv which is ),0( 2
vNiid σ in equation (1.1). The second error component which captures the
effects of technical inefficiency has a systematic component izγ ′ associated with the firm specific
variables and exogenous variables along with a random component iε . Inserting equation (1.2) in
(1.1) gives the single stage production frontier model
ln ln ( ; ) ( )i i i i i
y f x v zβ γ ε= + − +. (1.3)
The condition that ui ≥ 0 requires that i izε γ ′≥ − which does not require
0izγ ′ ≥ for each
producer. It is now necessary to impose distributional assumptions on vi and εi and to impose the
restriction i izε γ ′≥ − in order to derive the likelihood function.
Kumbhakar et al (1991) imposed distributional assumptions on vi and ui and ignored εi. They
assumed that iu ̴
),( 2
uizN σγ ′+
i.e., the one-sided technical inefficiency error component has
truncated normal structure with variable mode depending on zi. It is still not necessary that
0izγ ′ ≥. If z1i = 1 and 2 3 0,
Qγ γ γ= = =LL
this model collapses to Stevenson’s (1980)
truncated normal stochastic frontier model with constant mode 1γ, which further collapses to the
Aigner, Lovell and Schmidt (1977) half normal stochastic frontier model with zero mode if
1 0.γ = Each of these restrictions can be statistically tested. Finally if ui and vi are independently
distributed, all parameters of equation (1.1) can be estimated by using maximum likelihood
estimation method. The log likelihood function is a simple generalization of that of Stevenson’s
(1980) truncated normal model having constant modeµ
, with only one change. Constant modeµ
is now replaced by the variable mode ,i izµ γ ′= so that the log likelihood function is
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 52
(1.4)
where
2 2*
2 2
v i u ii
v u
z eσ γ σµ
σ σ
′ −=
+,
2 2*2
2 2
v u
v u
σ σσ
σ σ=
+
and the ln ln ( ; )
i i ie y f x β= −
are the residuals obtained from estimating equation (1.1) simply
by OLS. The log likelihood function of (1.4) can be maximized to obtain ML estimates of 2 2( , , , ).v u
β γ σ σ These estimates can then be used to obtain producer specific estimates of
technical efficiency, employing the Jondrow, Lovell, Materov and Schmidt (1982) approach to
find the best point estimates of technical efficiency. These estimates are either
* ** *
* *
( / )( / )
( / )i
i i i
i
E u eφ µ σ
µ σµ σ
= +Φ
(1.5)
or
* * 0( / )
0 .
i i
i i
ifM u e
otherwise
µ µ ≥= (1.6)
Once technical efficiency has been estimated, the effect of each exogenous or environmental
variable on technical efficiency can be calculated from either
[ ( / ) / ] [ ( / ) / ]i i ik i i ikE u e z or M u e z∂ ∂ ∂ ∂. Battese and Coelli (1995) model is an
improvement over the Kumbhakar et al (1991) model as, (i) it is based on panel data and (ii) the
non-negativity requirement ( ) 0i i iu zγ ε′= + ≥
is modelled as iε̴
),0( 2
εσN with the
distribution of iε bounded below by the variable truncation point izγ ′−
. Battese and Coelli
(1995) have verified that this new distributional assumption on iε is consistent with the
distributional assumption on ui that iu ̴
),( 2
uizN σγ ′+
. We assume a translog production
function with 6 inputs to specify the underlying technology. All the six inputs are already
mentioned in the text.
∑ ∑∑= = =
++=6
1
6
1
6
1
0 lnlnln);(lnj j k
kjjkjj xxxxf ββββ (1.7)
Here (1.7) is the translog technological specification assuming six inputs. Here yi represents paddy
output of the ith cultivator over the studied cropping season.
Further iiiiiii zzzzzzz 7766554433221 γγγγγγγγ ++++++=′ (1.8)
22 2
2 21 1 1
( )1ln tan ln ( ) ln ln
2 2
N N Ni i i i
v u
i i iu u v
z e zNL cons t
γ µ γσ σ
σ σ σ σ
∗
∗= = =
′ ′ += − + − Φ + Φ −
+ ∑ ∑ ∑
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 53
where, the zi’s are firm specific non-input variables which may influence the technical efficiency
of cultivators. Specifically,
2iz = Age of the cultivator, as a proxy for experience.
3iz= Outstanding Loans of the cultivator as a measure of the degree of indebtedness.
4iz= land leased in by the cultivator expressed as a percentage of total cultivated area.
iz5 = Education of the cultivator as measured by number of years of formal schooling.
iz6 = Self consumption of farm produce as a percentage of farm output, and finally,
=iz7 Government support dummy (assuming 1 for farmers receiving agricultural extension
services, and 0 for farmers who have not received any such support). From the translog production
function given by (1.7) we calculated the elasticities of output with respect to each input by using
the relation
∑=
+=∂∂=6
1
lnln/lnk
kjkjjijxxY ββη
(1.7a)
All the factor elasticities are computed from estimated parameters and sample mean value of
inputs.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 54
ANVESAK
A bi-annual Journal of SPIESR
Vol. 42, No.1 & 2 January-December 2012
Key Note Address: Problems and Prospects Yoginder K. Alagh
Economic Viability and Sustainability of Small Scale Farming: A Study in the Irrigated Gangetic Plains of UP
Ajit Kumar Singh
Food Security Aspects and Diversification of Demand in the Context of Gujarat
Niti Mehta
Rationalisation of Agricultural Subsidies: Study of Electricity and Fertiliser Subsidies in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Elumalai Kannan
Institutional Reform for Water Use Efficiency in Agriculture Jharna Pathak
Political Economy of the Energy-Groundwater Nexus in India: Exploring Issues and Assessing Policy Options
Tushaar Shah, Mark Giordano
and Aditi Mukherji
Positive and Normative Aspects of Price and the Market in Indian Agriculture-A Look at Government Policy Interventions in Food Management in an Unchanging Narrative of Traditional Agriculture
Munish Alagh
Land, Livelihoods, and State in India: Issues and Challenges Sukhpal Singh
Sustainability of Rice Cultivation in the Kole Land of Kerala Jeena T. Srinivasan
Growth of Paddy Production in India’s North Eastern Region: A Case of Assam
Komol Singha
Determinants of Non-Farm Employment in Rural Uttar Pradesh Vachaspati Shukla
How Sustainability Can be Ensured in Uncomfortable Nexus of Water, Agriculture and Institutions?
Dalbir Singh
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 55
WOMEN HOME BASED WORKERS ACROSS INDIAN STATES: RECENT
EVIDENCES
Tulika Tripathi1 and Nripendra Kishore Mishra2
Globalisation has introduced a system of production where flexible work contract or sub-
contracting and ‘putting-out’ system of production is becoming a general practice. Either as cost
reduction strategy or as businesses strategy production is being out sourced and consequently a
set of workers have emerged which is known as ‘home based workers (HBW)’ or ‘home workers’
or ‘outworkers’. NCEUS (2007) highlighted the importance of estimating and knowing the
conditions of work of home workers. Information about these home based workers has been
limited till recently due to definitional issues and data limitations. Delhi Group has clarified many
definitional issues and NSS 66th round, (2009-10) has provided relevant data to know details of
these home based workers. This paper focuses on women home based workers as they constitute
the largest part and are characterised by worst employment conditions. NSS has launched another
round (68th) of unemployment-employment survey for year 2011-12, still 66th round is much more
important in regard to home based workers due to the fact that 68th round has dropped many of
question on sub-contracting. Therefore, this paper relies on 66th round data only. This paper is
basically an attempt to look at state wise pattern in women home based workers. It shows that
there are considerable state level variations. There is state like Assam with close to half and
Punjab with slightly above 10 per cent of their women home based workers working under any
form of subcontracting. This paper looks at industrial distribution of these women home based
workers and it is shown that there are certain industrial groups where share of home based
women workers is higher than non home based workers. Thus we have fair reason to agree with
NCEUS (2007) that these workers are a special category and they need specific policies to redress
their situation.
INTRODUCTION
Global production networks and rising competition in domestic market accompanied by failure of
formal sector to absorb additional labour force or loss of formal sector job has created a situation
in many countries, including India, where a substantial section of work force is not working in a
central work site. Flexible work contract or sub-contracting and ‘putting-out’ system of production
is becoming a general practice. Businesses are finding it much easier and profitable to procure
production from a network of workers/suppliers through intermediaries and middle man. The
general mode of payment is piece rate. In a way production process is being decentralised. This
decentralisation is of a different kind where production is not carried out by the business itself but
is out sourced. This phenomenon has expanded in recent times and thus a set of workers have
emerged which is known as ‘home based workers (HBW)’ or ‘home workers’ or ‘outworkers’.
However, conceptually there are differences in these terms, though many a times they are used
interchangeably. A clear definition of home-based work was lacking till recently. Only recently
the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has constituted an Independent Group
1 Assistant Professor, Centre for Studies in Economics and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Central
Source: Extracted by authors from unit data set of NSS 66th round.
Table 9 Share of different industrial groups in home and non home based workers (UPS)
Industry
Home Based
Worker
Non- Home Based
Worker Total Agriculture, hunting and forestry 22.46 2.63 5.48 Manufacture of food products and beverages 3.49 2.19 2.63 Manufacture of tobacco products 4.06 0.09 1.81 Manufacture of textiles 6.37 1.94 3.64 Manufacture of wearing apparel 6.25 1.38 3.22 manufacturing of leather products 0.24 0.15 0.28 Manufacture of wood and wood products 3.10 0.97 1.47 Manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products 2.51 1.36 1.90 Manufacture of fabricated metal products 1.00 0.63 1.00 Manufacture of furniture 2.60 1.29 1.85 Manufacturing 31.71 12.80 22.19 Construction 3.11 20.67 18.35 Wholesale and retail trade and repairing 34.91 33.89 41.12 Hotels and restaurants 3.36 2.24 2.49 Transport, storage and communications 1.60 14.37 8.69 Financial intermediation 0.41 1.32 1.68 Real estate, renting and business activities 1.47 2.40 2.54 Education 1.81 3.97 5.48 Health and social work 1.19 1.13 1.74 Other community, social & personal services 4.47 6.50 4.01 Total 100 100 100
Source: Extracted by authors from unit data set of NSS 66th round.
INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION OF WOMEN HOME BASED WORKERS
Apart from discussion made above it is also important to know in which principal industrial
groups these women home based workers are concentrated. It is also important to know the
difference between home based and non home based women workers. On the basis of principal
status we divide total women workers into home based and non home based workers. There are
certain industrial groups where share of home based women workers is higher than non home
based workers, e.g. manufacturing of tobacco products and manufacturing of wearing apparels, the
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 64
share is almost same in case of wood products. However, manufacturing of tobacco products
seems to be completely a home based work. Leather and textile are other important groups where
share of women home based workers is very high. However, manufacturing and wholesale and
retail trade absorbs almost one third each of total women home based workers. Within
manufacturing food products, tobacco products, textile, wood products and apparel industry are
important concentration sectors of women home based workers (Table 9).
SUMMING UP
Now with fresh set of questions re-introduced in NSS 66th round we can easily estimate the
number, proportion and quality of employment of home based workers. This exercise can be done
on the basis of gender also. Since women are mainly in home based work, this paper focuses on
that section of home based workers only. This paper shows its prevalence across states and across
different statuses on the basis of usual principal status. U.P. is the home of the largest number of
women home based workers. The percentage of women home based workers in total women
workers is generally high in northern and eastern states, except W.B. Almost one third of home
based women workers are working without being paid anything for this. Rest of women home
based workers are working as own account workers; self employed as employer being almost
negligible. Average wage is always lower in home based work across major states of India, except
Punjab. It is also noteworthy that average weekly wage in non home based women workers is
fairly stable across state, but there are wide variations in case of home based women workers.
Basis of payment to workers is generally piece rate. Subcontracting is very common and this is
reflected in percentage of workers working under any specification. This subcontracting may have
been beneficial had this been based on larger number of output disposals. But we observe that
majority of women home based workers are working in one disposal only. Thus we have fair
reason to agree with NCEUS (2007) that these workers are a special category and they need
specific policies to redress their situation. This becomes all the more important when they happen
to be women.
_______________________________
Reference Jhabvala, Renana and Shalini Sinha (2002) - “Liberalisation and the Woman Worker.” Economic and
Political Weekly, May 25, 2002, pp 2037 – 2044. NCEUS (2007): Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector, GOI Neetha N. (2010) - “Self Employment of Women: Preference or Compulsion?” Social Change, Vol. 40, No.
2, June 2010, pp 139-156. UNIFEM (2000) - “A Preliminary Study on the Productive Linkages of Indian Industry with Home-based
Women Workers through Subcontracting Systems in Manufacturing Sector”, New Delhi: United Nations Development Fund for Women.
Unni, Jeemol and Uma Rani (2005) – “Impact of Recent Policies on Home Based Work in India”, Human
Development Resource Centre, Discussion Paper Series - 10, UNDP, New Delhi.
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 65
HEALTH SITUATION IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW
Shabir Ahmad Padder1 Health is an essential input for development of human resources and quality of life and in turn the
social and economic development of nation .A positive health status is defined as a state of
complete physical, mental and social well-being and not only the absence of disease or infirmity
(WHO, 1946).Health is a regardless priority for sustained development interventions both at the
individual community and national levels. Improved health is a part of total socio-economic
development and is regarded as an index of social development. A provision of basic health care
services to rural community is the primary objective of the government as well non-government
organizations in the context of rural development .Rural health services, safe drinking water
,sanitation ,nutrition, etc., have therefore, been brought together in the form of an integral
package to improve the social, economic and health conditions of the people. Therefore, the
primary goal of any health care delivery system is to organize the health services in such a
manner as to optimally utilize the available resources, knowledge and technology, with a view to
preventing and alleviating diseases, disability and sufferings of the people.
INTRODUCTION
We stand at the threshold of a new era in striving for the goal of “Health for All” as a public health
professions looking at the 20thcentury picture of our health, or lack of it, the view is primarily
filled with the images of our struggles against the “old” diseases that have plagued our ancestors
for centuries. But as we look towards the 21stcentury, The view is markedly different. We see
ourselves confronting “new” diseases in a world where borders and geographic distances are
increasingly irrelevant to the pattern of disease in our “globe village” yet we also perceive
ourselves continuing to fight many of those “old” diseases that are learning “new tricks” to foil
our attempts to combat them.
Our challenge, at the threshold of the new millennium is not only to address the assault of the
disease – producing microbes around us , but also to recognize that many of the causes of our ill
health are increasingly related to our life – styles and man made changes in our environment.
Health, life styles and environments will ultimately return greater increments in longevity than any
additions scientific advantages. More importantly, improvement in life styles and the environment
will help to ensure that these extra years of life are of high quality. We need to add life to year
rather than simple adding years to life developing countries such as India, face three major
problems – ignorance, poverty and disease. The link between these is so strong that it is difficult
to identify which leads to what! Consequently, setting priorities for any of the above three has
become a problem. However, efforts are underway in the developing countries through various
development programmes to eradicate ignorance, poverty and ill – health prevalent among the
major portion of the population.
India is essentially a rural country with 80 per cent of the population living in about 600600
villages with unsatisfactory sanitary conditions, poor economics and educations standards. The
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Govt. Degree College Shopian, Kashmir (J&K) – 192303,
email: shabirpadder_college@rediff mail.com
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 66
central and state Governments have realized the importance of health, family planning and
welfare, nutrition and sanitation in the whole process of development.
For attaining the goal of Health for All, India requires not only thorough over hauling of existing
Strategies in education and training of medical services and health personal, but also a radical
restructuring of health services infrastructure. Methods have to be evolved within a fully
integrated planning frame which should seek to provide universal comprehensive primary health –
care services , relevant to actual needs and priorities of the community at a cost which the people
can afford ensuring that planning and implementation of the various health programmes is through
organized involvement and participation of the community, adequately utilizing the services
rendered by private voluntary organizations active in health the sector.
Presently, despite the constraints of resources, there is disproportionate emphasis on the
establishment of curative centres, hospitals and institutions for special treatment. The large
majority is concentrated in the urban areas in unplanned fashion which result s in the under –
utilization of some services and over – utilization of the other services. The vast majority of those
seeking medical relief have to travel long distance to nearest curative centre, seeking relief ailment
which should have been readily and effectively handled at the community level. Also for want of
well established referral systems those seeking curative care have a tendency to visit specialist
centres, thus further contributing to congestion, duplication of efforts and constantly waste of
resources. The objective of the paper is to assess the Health status of India in Global and National
perspective. Further issues of inequity in health services and financing of health care will also be
addressed. Suitable suggestions/ policy implications for making health care services / programmes
more relevant to the people will be given in this paper.
SOME COMPONENTS OF HEALTH IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
The WHO highlights three specific dimensions of health – the physical, the mental and the social.
Health is multifactor as well. There are numerous factors influencing health like hereditary factors,
environmental factors, life style, adequate housing, basic sanitation and socio economic conditions
including income, education, availability and quality of health infrastructure and per capita health
expenditure.
Safe drinking water and proper sanitation has a significant role in health sector. water borne
diseases like diarrhoea, malaria , cholera and hepatitis are basically targeted to infants, children
and old people. Every year there are four billion cases of diarrhoea in the world causing two
billion deaths among children under – five and 15 per cent of deaths in developing courtiers
(WHO and 2000). Contaminated water is one of the most important causes of diarrhoea among
children. There is other water pollutant such as long term exposure to arsenic in drinking water,
which can causes cancer of skin, lungs, urinary bladder and kidney (Haq, 2004). The beginning of
the new millennium one sixth of the world population was without improved water source and two
fifths were without improved sanitation facilities (UNICEF 2000). Sanitation facilities still fail to
meet the requirements of all population groups, especially in India where access to sanitation
needs much progress.
Nutrition is an aspect of health where income matters – hungry people who have more money are
likely to spend it on food and as famously illustrated by Amartya Sen.’s ground breaking work on
famines, hungry often reflects the lack of means to acquire food rather than general food scarcity
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 67
(OECD, 2010)..However, more income does not always guarantee proper nutrition, and people
who are not poor can still go hungry.
Inadequate nutrition also affects the people – particularly children – acquire knowledge and
participate in society. It hampers the ability to work and be productive and thus limits the ability to
earn the income needed to lead a decent life. And the irreversibility of some health consequences
of malnutrition –blindness from Vitamin A deficiency, physical stunting from protein shortages –
reinforces the urgency of eradicating hunger (Neumayer, 2010).
Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen wrote that “Hunger is a many- headed monster” highlighting the
many ways a lack of food can affect people's freedoms (Southgate, 1990).Hunger is also a
behemoth and a stubborn one. Hunger persists despite the remarkable boost in food production
brought about by the green revolution between the early 1960s and the early 1980s. by 2000
further gain in food production had contributed to lower prices for most staples. The share of
undernourished people in developing countries fell from 25 percent in 1980 to 16 percent in
2005(HDR, 2010). While many millions of people have too little to eat, millions eat too much.
The recent rise in obesity, especially in children, jeopardizes advances in the care of
cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes. Severe obesity can reduce life by 5 – 20 years, leading
some specialists to conclude that life expectancy in United States is likely to level off and may
even fall by 2050 (Barro, 1991). These risks are the result not just of higher income but also of
cultural influences that can be transmitted across borders. Mexico were peoples incomes average
only a fifth those of the United States, has shares of obeyed and overweight people similar to those
in the United States(Ibrahim and Alkire, 2007).
HEALTH STATUS OF INDIA – INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON
Health is a vital indicator of human development. Health stands in India have improved
considerably since independence. The concerted efforts to the government and other agencies
engaged in expanding the health infrastructure have paid off, as evidenced by the improvement in
some of our health indicators. Longevity has more than doubled since independence, infant
Mortality Rate has fallen, malaria has been contained, small pox and guinea worm have been
completely eradicated and leprosy and polio are nearing elimination. We have made deeper
inroads into rural areas with focused schemes like the National Rural Health Mission and have
even started a scheme for health insurance for the poor population.
Despite these achievements, the health services that India provides to her people continues to be
far from adequate and compares rather poorly with even Asia n neighbours like Sri Lanka and
China. One fifth of the world’s share of diseases is in India, there are huge regional disparities in
health standards in the country and huge gaps in health care infrastructure, in rural areas. The
reasons for this can be many, with centralize planning and low government spending on health
being some of the major among them. India spends only 1.1% of GDP on health against the 7.5 %
by United States, 7.1% by Norway as is shown in Table. 1. It is evident from the table that still
12% of the population in India do not have access to safe drinking water and 69% do not have
access to proper sanitation facility. India has lowest sanitation coverage among the neighbouring
countries. In developed courtiers 100% of the people have access to safe drinking water and
proper sanitation facility.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 68
Table 1 Economic and Health Indicators of India and Few Selected Countries
Country GDP per capita US$
(2008)
Expenditure on
health per capita (PPP$) (2007)
Public expenditure
on health as a % of GDP (2000-07)
% of people without
access to Safe
drinking water (2008)
% of people without
access to Proper
sanitation (2008)
Prevalence of under
nourishment (% of
total population
) (2004 – 06)
Intensity of food
deprivation (average % short fall in minimum
dietary energy requirements (2004 – 06)
Norway 94,759 47,63 7.5 0 0 <5 -
US 46,350 7,285 7.1 1 0 <5 -
Japan 38,455 2696 6.5 0 0 <5 -
UK 43,541 2,992 6.9 0 0 <5 -
China 3,267 2,23 1.9 11 45 10 13
Sri Lanka 2,013 179 2.0 10 9 21 14
India 1,017 109 1.1 12 69 22 15
Pakistan 9,91 64 0.8 10 55 23 16
Bangladesh 497 42 1.1 20 47 26 17 Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2010
Percentage of malnourished population is quite high in all developing countries China has lower
percentage of malnourished population than that of India 10% population suffer from malnutrition
and 13% face food deprivation in India. Figure is little bit satisfactory when compared with
Pakistan and Bangladesh. Table 2.shows health indicators / outcomes of India vis – a – vis other
developed and developing countries. Table reveals that Number of physicians available per ten
thousand of population is more than 20 in case of developed countries while as it is lower than 15
in developing countries. Similarly number of Hospital beds available per 10 thousand of the
population varies from 39 to 139 in developed countries while as it varies from 4 to 31 in
developing countries. Life Expectancy in developed countries is more than 80 years while as it is
comparatively low in developing countries. India has lowest life Expectancy 64 years when
compared other neighbouring countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan , Sri Lanka and China. Infant
Mortality rate per thousand live births is 3 to 7 in DC’s, it is much higher in south Asian Countries
ranging from 18 to 72. Maternal Mortality Rate is less than ten in developed countries while as it
is 450 in India and 570 in Bangladesh. It is only 45 China and 58 in Sri Lanka. Further Total
Fertility Rate is quite high in developing countries India (2.5), Pakistan (3.6) compared to
developed countries which are less than 2. Similarly 34% infants lack immunization facility in
India against DTP and 2% against measles.
Health outcomes are influenced more by the share public expenditure in health expenditure rather
than the share of health expenditure in GDP. Per capita income of developed countries vary from
more than 50 to 80 times that of India among the neighbouring countries China and Sri Lanka as a
higher per capita income. Health expenditure as a percentage of GDP is significantly higher in
developed countries as compared to India and the neighbouring developing countries.
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 69
Table 2 Health Indicators of India and Few Selected Countries
Country Physicians (per 10 thousand
people 2000-09)
Hospital beds (per 10
thousand people 2000-
09)
Life Expectancy (2010 )
Infant Mortality Rate (per thousand live
births 2008)
Norway 39 39 81.0 3
US 27 31 79.6 7
Japan 21 139 83.2 3
UK 21 39 79.8 5
China 14 30 73.5 18
Sri Lanka 6 31 74.4 13
India 6 9 64.4 52
Pakistan 8 6 67.2 72
Bangladesh 3 4 66.9 43
Maternal Mortality Rate
(2003 – 08)
Total Fertility Rate
(2010-15)
Infants lacking Immunization
against DTP (2008)
Infants lacking Immunization against (% of one year’s olds)
Measles 2008
Norway 7 1.9 6 7
US 11 2.0 4 8
Japan 6 1.3 2 3
UK 8 1.9 8 14
China 45 1.8 3 6
Sri Lanka 58 2.2 2 2
India 450 2.5 34 30
Pakistan 320 3.6 27 15
Bangladesh 570 2.2 5 11
Source: UNDP , Human Development Report 2010
HEALTH EXPENDITURES AND FINANCING AGENTS
In India over 80% of the health expenditure is private. As against this, in most developed
countries, more than 80 per cent of health expenditure is borne by the public exchequer. The NHS
(National Health Service) of the UK is an especially stark example of a state run and publicity
funded health care system. Along with the Scandinavian countries, the UK uses tax finances to
pay for 80 per cent of the health care spending. Elsewhere in Europe, social insurance schemes
shoulder most of the financial burden for health care. The United States (US) has its own system
of financing health care relying on private insurance paid, mostly, by the employers, almost half
of the super – sized health spending of the US (16 per cent of the GDP) is still financed by tax
money for the care of the old and the very poor (Kurain , 2010).
Due to very minor rule of insurance in Indian Health Sector, almost three – fourth of the total
health expenditure is borne by the households as out of pocket expenditure and it is estimated that
one quarter of all Indians slip below the poverty line in the event of hospitalization and more than
40% of the individuals who are hospitalized in India in a year barrow money or sell assets to cover
the cost of health care. Rising health care costs are major cause of indebtedness and
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 70
impoverishment especially in the context of the poor and marginalized as is evident from the
Table 3 NSSO surveys have established that the proportion of households which are unable to
seek any health care in the event of illness on account of cost considerations is on the increase
(GoI 2007, NCAER 2001). These are matters of serious concern for a nation which is emerging a
major force in the world arena.
Table 3 Measured levels of Expenditure on Health in India 2003 – 2007 (latest)
Selected national health accounts indicators
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Total expenditure on health as % GDP
2 3 4 5 6
General government expenditure on health as %
of total expenditure on health
4.2 4.0 3.8 3.6 4.1
Private expenditure on health as % of total
expenditure on health 20.4 20.9 22.4 25.0 26.2
General government expenditure on health as %
of total government expenditure
3.0 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.7
External resources for health as % of total expenditure on
health 0.6 0.7 0.5 1.0 1.4
Social security expenditure on health as % of general
govt. expenditure on health 5.8 5.8 5.2 4.9 17.2
Out of pocket expenditure as % of private expenditure on
health 92.4 92.3 91.9 91.4 89.9
Private prepaid plans as % of private expenditure on health
1.0 1.0 1.1 1.1 2.1
Source: - World Health Statistics 2010 (latest)
Note: Data are harmonized by WHO for international comparability. They are not
necessarily t he official of member states, which may use alternative methods.
Several mechanisms of financing have been considered such as user charges of government
services community financing and insurance. Health insurance to meet the cost of hospitalization
for major illness may ensure that health care costs do not come as a major financial, burden to the
patients or their families, particularly of the low and middle income group of population. Thus,
there is a great scope for extending health services of private sector hospitals and nursing homes.
Further, if the health services are to be delivered at affordable cost, it is imperative that the pattern
of the public health expenditure s be charged and private health sector needs regulated and a
constructive public – private sector partnership nurtured.
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 71
HEALTH STATUS IN INDIA – INTERSTATE COMPARISON
Table 4 presents state wise data on major economic indicators and achievements of important
health outcomes per capita income of Major States for 2004 – 05 at constant prices (1999 -2000) is
given in column 2. The figure varies from lowest level of Rs 6610 in Bihar to highest figure of
29887 in Haryana, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh have low level of perfect income while Haryana
and Maharashtra have highest level of income. Health expenditure as a percentage of total state
expenditure is represented in column third the figure varies from 4.65% in Kerala to 2.88% in
Maharashtra.
Maternal Mortality Ratio varies from low figure of 95 in Kerala to high of 480 in Assam. Light
Expectancy at Birth during 2002 to 2006 for males , females and total is given in column 4,5,and 6
male expectancy varies from 71.4 in Kerala to 58.1 in Madhya Pradesh While Female life
expectancy varies from 76.3 in Kerala to 57.9 in MP. Total life expectancy varies from 74 in
Kerala to 58 in Madhya Pradesh. Male infant mortality rate for 2007 varies from 12 in Kerala to
72 in MP. Female infant mortality rate varies from 13 in Kerala to 72 in Orissa and MP. Total
infant mortality rate varies from 13 in Kerala to 15 in MP. The ranking of major states on the basis
of economic and health indicators is presented in Table 5. It appears that there is not strong
relationship between the level of health indicators and income across Indian States.
Given the size, diversity, and stratified nature of Indian society, the health outcomes can be
described as mirroring the multiple axes of socio-economic inequalities, such as rural-urban; inter
and intra state; caste; income; and gender. Several studies have tried to capture these inequalities
by using the association between variables like level of education, type of housing, income, and
social groups with health outcomes like Infant Mortality Rate and Under-5Mortality Rate. The
1998-99 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-2 reveals sharp regional and socio-economic
divides in health outcomes with the lower caste, the poor, and less developed states bearing a
disproportionate burden of mortality. The scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are clearly at
disadvantage and studies show that improvement has been slow in case of these groups as
compared to others. It is well known that IMR is a sensitive indicator for socio-economic and
health services development. This can be discerned when the IMR is disaggregated across socio-
economic groups and the association between the two is obvious. As Deogankar’s (2009) analysis
shows:’ The Infant Mortality Rate in the poorest 20% of the population is 2.5 times higher than
that in the richest 20% of the population. In other words, an infant born in a poor family is two and
half times more likely to die in infancy, than an infant in abettor off family. A child in the ‘Low
standard of living’ economic group is almost four times more likely to die in childhood than a
child in the ‘High standard of living’ group. A child born in the tribal belt is one and half times
more likely to die before the fifth birthday than children of other groups. A female child is 1.5
times more likely to die before reaching her fifth birthday as compared to a male child’ Based on
the analysis of two rounds of NFHS, Subramanian et al.(2006) show the existence of gender and
caste differentials. The gender differentials are not marked for IMR but the divide becomes
apparent for the Under-5 Mortality Rates, indicating that social discrimination against girl children
begins early and contributes to their progressive neglect throughout their life. The risk of mortality
before the age of 5 is higher for girls than for boys on one hand, and for schedule caste, schedule
tribe, other backward classes, and the rural areas of one of the poorest states than for all India on
the other. While the all-India average for U-5MR came down from 95 to 74 between 1998 and
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 72
2006, it shows an increase in inequality in U-5MR for the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe
communities when compared to the all India average. The socio-economic inequalities get further
compounded by inter-state and intra-state inequalities in IMR and the Under-5 Mortality Rates.
Table 4 Economic Growth and Health Status in Major States
Source: - Statistical Digest 2007 -08 Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Planning and
Development Department Government of J&K ; Economic Survey 2009 – 10 , GOI. National
Health Accounts Report 2004 – 05 of MOHFW, GOI; www.mp.gov.in/health/mmr-bult-
april2009pdf.
Note: # PCNSDP at constant 1999-2000 prices; Health Expenditure as percentage of Gross
State Expenditure
The sharp inter-state inequality in health outcomes can be illustrated by contrasting Kerala and
Tamil Nadu, which represent the better developed states, with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which are
ranked as less developed. While socio-economic factors are important determinants of health
outcomes, health services play an important role in averting deaths by providing both preventive
and curative services. Therefore, it can be argued that differences in availability, accessibility, and
quality of health services are an important determinant of variations in health outcomes. Available
evidence from India shows that there are variations in the financing and provisioning of public and
private health services (Baru, 1999; Krishnan, 1999). The better developed states have a functional
public sector as well as a large private sector, while less developed ones like Bihar, UP, MP, and
Rajasthan have a weak public and private sector. NSS data on utilization shows that there is high
reliance across states on the private sector for outpatient treatment, which is dominated by
informal practitioners. Given the federal nature of the State, the major responsibility for financing,
provisioning, and administration of health rests with the respective states that influence
availability, accessibility, and acceptability of services. Rao (2007) in his analysis of financial
variations shows that while per capita spending on heal this Rs 35.05 for Kerala and Rs42 for
Tamil Nadu, it is abysmally low for UP at Rs18.10p during 1998-99. This is just to illustrate the
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 73
extent of variation in health spending while fully acknowledging that per capita figures are mere
averages which, in themselves, mask inequities. The pattern of health spending influences the
structure of provisioning of health services.
Table 5 Major States Ranked on the basis of Economic Growth and Health Status
States PCI# 2006
Health Exp (%)
MMR LEB IMR
Male Female Total Male Female Total
Andhra Pradesh 8 9 5 8 8 8 8 8 8
Assam 11 12 15 14 14 14 12 10 12
Bihar 15 4 11 10 11 11 10 12 10
Gujarat 4 13 6 8 9 9 7 7 7
Haryana 1 10 7 4 6 4.5 9 9 9
Karnataka 7 7 9 7 5 6 6 6 6
Kerala 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Madhya Pradesh 13 10 12 15 15 15 15 14 15
Maharashtra 13 15 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
Orissa 12 2 10 13 12 13 14 14 14
Punjab 3 14 8 2 2 2 5 5 5
Rajasthan 16 5 13 11 10 10 11 10 11
Tamil Nadu 6 8 2 5 4 4.5 3 3 3
Uttar Pradesh 14 6 14 12 13 12 13 13 13
West Bengal 10 3 4 6 7 7 4 4 4
Source: Same as Table 4
Note: Same as Table 4
Further there is no discernable relation between per capita income and share of government
expenditure on health care. Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab rank high in per capita income while
Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal are top raking states in State expenditure on health care. Maharashtra
spend low share on health care Bihar, UP having low per capita income spend high share on health
care. In terms of health outcomes Kerala ranks 1 in all health indicators it ranks high in health
expenditure while it ranks fit in per capita income. Maharashtra which ranks two in per capita
income and health expenditure share rank of 15, has been second best ranking State in terms of
health outcomes followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu.
Public and private expenditure on Health Care in Major States for 2004 – 05 on the basis of
National Health Accounts Statistics are presented in Table6. Per capita public expenditure on
health care varies from high figure of Rs. 630 in HP to a very low figure of Rs. 128 in UP. Private
expenditure across major Indian States is presented in column 3 where figure varies from Rs. 2663
in Kerala to a lower figure of Rs. 420 in Bihar. Assam ranks one in per capita public expenditure
while as Kerala stands on the lowest ebb in per capita public spending. High per capita income
states like Haryana, Maharashtra, and Punjab have relatively low level of per capita public
spending. Kerala , HP, Assam for top ranking states in terms of total expenditure while as Bihar
Rajasthan MP are bottom ranking states in total expenditure on health care.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 74
Table 6 Public and Private Expenditure on Health in Major States
Per capita Health Expense
per annum (Rs) Public Exp as % to total
Ranks
States Public Pvt Total Pub %
Pub Exp
Pvt Exp
Tot Exp
Andhra Pradesh 191 870 1061 18.00 12 11 8 9
Assam 841 613 1454 57.8 1 1 13 3
Bihar 93 420 513 18.1 10 17 17 17
Gujarat 198 755 953 20.7 6 10 10 12
Haryana 203 875 1078 18.8 8 9 7 8
Karnataka 233 597 830 28.0 4 6 14 14
Kerala 287 2663 2980 9.7 17 4 1 1
Madhya Pradesh 145 644 789 18.3 11 15 12 15
Maharashtra 204 1008 1212 16.8 14 8 5 7
Orissa 183 719 902 20.3 7 13 11 13
Punjab 247 1112 1359 18.17 9 5 2 4
Rajasthan 186 575 761 24.4 5 12 14 16
Tamil Nadu 223 1033 1256 17.7 13 7 4 6
Uttar Pradesh 128 845 974 13.1 16 16 9 11
West Bengal 173 1086 1259 13.7 15 14 3 5
Jammu & Kashmir 512 489 1001 51.14 2 3 16 10
Himachal Pr 630 881 1511 41.7 3 2 6 2
Source: National Health Accounts; (Ranks computed)
However, there is close relation between the income and expense indicators and the health status
indicators as evident from Table 7. Higher income and expense leads to lower infant and maternal
mortality and higher life expectancy.
Table 7 Association between Health Indicators and Select Variables
Per Capita Income
Per Capita Health Expense
MMR -0.77 -0.39
IMR -0.64 -0.72
LEB 0.77 0.70 Source: Author’s calculation
RURAL URBAN INEQUITY IN HEALTH SERVICES
Although health indicators have continued to improve over time, villagers are far behind the towns
and cities in case of healthcare facilities and their outcomes. This difference can be observed both
qualitatively and quantitatively. The major part of the healthcare facilities in rural areas are
provided by the unqualified and untrained medical professionals. Most of the public hospitals
and dispensaries are located in urban areas and almost all private clinics and nursing homes are in
the urban areas. If we look at the rural – urban difference in the level of healthcare infrastructure,
we find that villages are far behind the cities. For instance in 2001, there were 0.54 hospitals, 1.49
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 75
dispensaries and 15.05 hospital beds per lakh population in rural India. While the corresponding
figures in Urban India were 0.80,102.90 and 3.60 respectively.
Table 8 Rural Urban Inequity in Health Status
Total fertility rate 3.07 2.85
Births assisted by health professions % 33.5 73.3
Birth delivered in medical institution 24.6 65.1
Two does or of TT vaccination during pregnancy (%) 62.5 81.9
Mothers who had at least 3 antenatal care visits for their last birth (%)
22.4 54.7
Total unmet need for family planning (%) 16.7 13.4
Women whose body mass index is below normal (%) 40.6 22.6
Ever – married age 15 – 49 who are anaemic (%) 53.9 45.7
Children 12-23 months fully immunized (BCG , measles and 3 doses each of polio / DPT) %
29.3 51.9
Children 12 – 23 months who have received BCG % 67.1 86.8
Children 12 – 23 months who have received 3 doses of polio vaccine (%)
58.3 78.2
Children 12-23 months who have received 3 doses of DPT Vaccine (%)
49.8 73.4
Children with Diarrhoea in the last 2 weeks who received ORS (%).
25 32.7
Children with Diarrhoea in the last 2 weeks taken to a health facility (%)
59.9 75.2
Children with acute respiratory infect ion or f ever in the last 2 weeks taken to a health facility (%)
61.8 75.1
Children age 6 – 35 months who are anaemic (%) 75.3 70.8
underweight children below 3 years age (%) 49.6 38.4
infant death (per 1000 of live children) 73 68
under five mortality (per 1000) 103.5 63.1
CDR (pr 1000) 10.4 7.4
Source: National Family Health Survey III 2005-06.
Table 8 provides information on some of the health indicators for the last survey of National
Family Health Survey. Table reveals that Urban India has better outcome in case of almost all
health indicators. Fertility rate. Infant death rate, under – 5 mortality rate, and CDR are much
higher in rural areas than the urban areas. Percentage of total unmet need for family planning was
also higher in the rural area when compared to the urban areas.
It is evident from Table 8 that overall health status of women and children in the rural India is
much poorer than their urban counterparts. For example, the results of NFHS – III (2005 – 06)
reveal that percentage of rural women with body mass index (BMI) below normal was 38.8 while
the corresponding percentage in urban women was only 19.8. There were more anaemic women
and children in rural areas than in urban areas, as is evident from the data given in the Table.
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 76
Percentage of fully immunized children age 12.23 months were only 38.6 percent in rural areas,
while the corresponding percentage in urban areas was 57.5 percentages of children with acute
respiratory infection (ARI) in the last 2 weeks, who were taken to a health facility, were 59.9 in
rural areas and 78.1 in urban areas. These figures clearly indicate that there exists wide inequality
in the distribution of healthcare infrastructure among rural and urban locations. Due to the
deficiency of proper medical aid, the death rate, infant mortality rate and fertility rate all are
higher in the villages than the cities. Although these rates have been declining over the years,
these are still high especially in the rural India. Provision of public health services, such as, access
to basic and preventive healthcare sanitation , clean water and raising awareness about the causes
of illness and their treatment are necessary for improving human development in rural India.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
The problems of health care are enormous. Access to primary health care is inadequate to the
majority of the people because of low availability of basic preventive and promotive health care
packages, clinics, doctors, drugs and paramedical persons in rural areas. Greater stress on
preventive health care medicine and health education should be laid. Health literacy efforts should
be made integral to preventive, promotive’ curative and rehabilitative health care .A meaningful
involvement of private sector and NGOs is critical in all these endeavours for promoting a
people oriented and sustain able health care system.
A vast network of health institutions has been developed .Rapid expansion has however, resulted
in a considerable drop in the quality of functioning of health institutions .For several reasons the
quality of services and work done by various health institutions and by different categories of
health personal are poor, resulting I n low credibility among rural community .Moreover, for want
of quality, the efficiency and effectiveness of the programmes and services has been limited and
the objectives not fully realized. This is one of the causes of non utilization or underutilization of
health services and facilities by the people especially the rural communities.
Organisation of health services has become complex, centralized and insensitive to the varying
health felt-needs of the rural community. It is suggested that organizational setup of health
services needs organization .While the health organization has grown tremendously, functionally
the structure has changed with the dynamic and divergent demands of effective health
management. The middle level management is weak because of low status accorded to training in
public health, inadequate decentralization of authority and resources allocation. The most
important problem is the mal-distribution of health manpower, both geographically and category
wise. Both technical knowledge and motivation to serve rural people fall short of requirement and
expectations.
Communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy are likely to continue to pose
challenges to the country in the coming years. Non-communicable diseases will become a major
health problem in the country due to the changing lifestyles, increasing stress and tensions and
cultural systems in the society. With increase in the number of aged people, there will be higher
incidence and prevalence of diseases like hypertension, diabetes, cancer in the whole range of
genetic problems.
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 77
Equitable distribution of rural health care should be ensured by the government. Location of health
services and facilities should be such that these are easily accessible and available to rural
community.
The most pervasive inadequacy and critical deficiency of our primary health care system is the
non – availability of medical staff and other supporting personnel in primary Health care system
sis the non – availability of medical staff and other supporting personal in rural areas. An
ineffective supervisory and monitoring system compounded by corrupt practices, helps to sustain
this situation. This virtually renders the public health units in rural areas non – functional. As a
result of the non – availability of doctors the implementation of many public health programmes
has been adversely affected.
The lack of effective initiative in regulating the private health sector is another area where the
“soft” character of the state is evident. The incidents of unethical practices reported from private
sector health providers are mounting, and these, are also reported by the media from time to time.
These practices range from exorbitant charges , unnecessary and superfluous investigations, lack
of quality care, negligence and total lack of accountability (Nandraj 1994) private sector hospitals
suffer from inadequate and unqualified medical and Para Medical Personnel, unclean
environment, improper location of facility, negligence and unethical behaviour. State
Governments have failed to take adequate steps by enacting tough laws and introducing strict
regulations followed by rigorous inspections to check unethical practices and to protect consumer
interests as well as health standards.
The location of facility and allocation of resources to specific health units / schemes/ programmed
that are, quite often , governed by political considerations ( Jeffery , 1988). Ideally, the available
funds should be distributed to units, areas and programmes as per norms based on objective
consideration. In respect of health units, for example, these considerations should include the
population and the physical areas to be served, the level of disease burden, status of existing
facilities, inefficiencies in the infrastructure and the priorities in gaps to be bridged, etc. however,
these objective norms are rarely followed in taking such decisions. The skewness in the
distribution of resources based on these influences leads to several distortions. One of them is the
vide gap in the quality of Health Care between Rural and urban areas. The latter, in any case,
consume larger resources because of the location of hospitals. Thus the rural – urban inequity gets
accentuated. The other consequence is the increase in the regional imbalance between backward
areas and more developed/ prosperous areas.
In view of experiences and difficulties faced in the provision of rural health services, it has been
realized that acceleration of the pace of implementation of rural health programmes is urgent and
concerted efforts need to be made for rapidly improving the health profile of the country. For
making rural health care services more meaningful to the rural community, it needed to bring
about fundamental changes in the approach to the entire health care delivery system in general and
rural health care in particular.
________________________________
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JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 80
INDIAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT The Indian Journal of Human Development (IJHD) is a peer-reviewed multi disciplinary Journal, published bi-annually by the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi. It provides an open platform for promoting debate and discussions from a human development perspective and also promotes critical engagement with human development discourse. IJHD publishes articles, reviews, perspectives, research notes/commentaries, statistics relating to human development and book reviews on India and developing world. The Journal welcomes expressions of all shades and opinions.
CURRENT ISSUE
The current issue brings together works of internationally renowned scholars and Indian researchers on issues such as human development indicators and social exclusion, social sector expenditures and impacts on human development, the primacy of politics in poverty reduction and development, citizenship and displacement, social investments and interpretation of care needs, interdependence between growth and inequality and poverty and inequality in high growth periods in the Indian context.
Some of the articles published recently in IJHD include:
Amartya Sen: Children and Human Rights Arjun Sengupta: A Rights-Based Approach to Removing Poverty Amitabh Kundu: Achieving Diversity in Socio-economic Space: An Alternate Strategy of Intervention through the Diversity Index Ashwani Saith: Downsizing and Distortion of Poverty in India: The Perverse Power of Official Definitions Guy Standing: Reviving Egalitarianism in the Global Transformation: Building Occupational Security Jan Breman: The New Poverty Line: A Poor Deal Jean Drèze, Reetika Khera and Sudha Narayanan: Early Childhood in India: Facing the Facts Ravi Kanbur: What's Social Policy Got to Do with Economic Growth? Sabina Alkire and Suman Seth: Determining BPL Status: Some Methodological Improvements Sukhadeo Thorat: Social Exclusion in Indian Context Zoya Hasan: Equal Opportunity Commission and the Possibilities of Equality
SYMPOSIUM VOLUMES
IJHD publishes scientific papers and articles from symposiums and seminars on key aspects of human development. Some of the issues covered in recent volumes of IJHD includes Reports of the Expert Groups on Equal Opportunity Commission and Diversity Index (July-December 2009), Estimation of Poverty and Identifying the Poor (January-June 2010), and The Idea of Justice (January-June 2011). Details of papers in these volumes can be found at the Journal website. All correspondence should be addressed to :
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 81
Book Review
Unfolding Crisis in Assam's Tea Plantations: Employment and Occupational Mobility; Deepak K. Mishra, Vandana Upadhyay, Atul Sarma; (Vol. 3 of the Transition in
Northeastern India Series, series editor: Sumi Krishna); 246 pages; Price: ` 695; ISBN
0415523087
The book under review is the third under the series Transition in Northeastern India brought out
by Routledge. The series aims to broaden the focus to the processes and practices that have
shaped, and are shaping, the people’s identities, outlook, institutions and economy in the seven-
sister and a brother states of India’s northeast. Eschewing the homogenising term ‘North East’,
which was imposed on the region in a particular political context half a century ago, the series title
refers to the ‘north eastern region’ to more accurately reflect its heterogeneity and the varied
issues confronting its diverse people. In this book, the authors have drawn attention to the one of
the most important industry of the region and the crisis that is slowly engulfing this oft talked
about sector.
Of the six chapters, the introductory chapter contextualizes the historical perspective of the tea
industry, its importance and place in Indian economy vis-a-vis the present scenario of the industry,
nature of recent crisis and the probable reasons behind it. The tea industry presently is under threat
and the people dependent and involved with this sector are facing severe difficulties in terms of
maintaining their livelihood. The major crises being faced by the Indian tea industry include
production stagnation, declining export and shut down of number of tea gardens. Though a large
section of the book discusses these crises, the primary focus of the study is to understand the
working condition of tea industry in Assam, labour relations therein, issues related to livelihood
diversification and intergenerational changes in the sector. Though existing research points at high
labour cost arising out of security provided through state regulation as the major reason behind the
current crisis in the sector, the authors argue that the post-liberalization policies have destroyed the
foundation of Indian agricultural sector due to state negligence and lack of capital investment, and
the situation of tea industry is no exception. Though characteristically it is a sector which includes
both agricultural and industrial processes, it has lost due to the dwindling fortune of agricultural
sector, while not gaining from the industrial growth story. The importance of the study lies in this
new outlook.
The authors discussed in brief the historical perspective of tea sector and initial nature of worker
relation with the management in colonial time and argued that the root of the problem deeply lies
in that era. Though in Assam the tea plantation initially got started with workers from China for a
short period of time and then successively being carried over by the locals, quickly the situation
changed with migrant labour, mainly from tribal belt of central India, taking the predominant
place. The system of bonded labour, indenture and unfreedom became synonymous with
plantation labour market which in turn made the labourers vulnerable in spite of state regulation.
The authors’ argued that in Assam, the tea workers, mainly the tribal migrants, remained close to
the garden enclave and as a result their social integration with the locals happened to be weak with
low mobility which in turn excluded them socially and economically. The authors’ discussed the
implication of globalization in a labour market with rigid formal sector regulations and how the
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 82
labour market experienced inter sectoral wage gap which also saw informalisation of formal
sector. Though the tea sector is the ‘oldest globally oriented sector’, the labourers are
continuously facing new challenges of liberalized regime with fall in auction price after
liberalization, lower demand due to break down of Soviet Union (happened to be the highest
importer of Indian tea) and low productivity resulting in closing of tea gardens, eviction of
workers, higher malnourishment, dropout rates and higher female migration.
In the second chapter the authors have discussed the growth performance of Assam tea industry at
the district level in terms of area, production and productivity to capture the trend over time along
with a national comparison, linking it with world capitalism to capture the role of capitalism in
plantation sector throughout the world particularly in India under British rule. They argue that the
development of tea sector in Assam was associated with colonial interest as the capital and the
management were being provided by them whereas the land and labour were being procured from
local area. In Assam the process of shifting from subsistence farming to export oriented
production in colonial era occurred suddenly and hurriedly through means like preferential and
promotional treatment for planters neglecting interest of local farming and tribal communities
resulting in socio-cultural and economic discrimination and the process continued over time and
increased further under liberalised regime. They observe that the steady rise in area, production
and productivity of tea in India were suddenly reversed in the last decade or so, more so in Assam
because of the inadequate replanting of bushes and less investment in large and medium size
gardens along with proliferation of small gardens.
The third chapter of the book deals with demand and supply side of labour market, its
characteristics, composition and labour-use pattern in tea sector based on secondary data. Authors
point out that employment growth is slower in Assam compared to national average and
employment elasticity also declined in Assam
In the fourth chapter the authors have discussed the intergenerational occupational mobility among
tea garden labourers following the mobility matrix approach and also spatial mobility from tea
garden to outside. The study is crucial and highly appreciable from the point of view of paucity of
intergenerational mobility studies in Indian context. They used the primary data from their
rigorous field survey in three districts of Assam – Sivasagar, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur. They
have divided the data into two sets – one set for households residing within tea gardens with main
sources of income coming from tea garden, and another set for households living outside tea
gardens but who were tea garden workers earlier. This chapter discussed elaborately the
occupational pattern and distribution among different categories for present and earlier generations
as well as presented outflow matrix to capture the intergenerational mobility scenario. It is found
that among the tea garden workers earlier generation has little occupational diversification while it
is higher for ex-tea garden households where the predominant category is farming. The immobility
is highest among categories of permanent and casual labourers of tea gardens for households
within tea garden while for the ex tea garden households quite expectedly immobility is highest
among the cultivators. The authors included unemployment as one of the occupational status
which has a significant implication for the present generations with the figure standing at 15 per
cent for the first set of household and 25 per cent for the later. Discussing this aspect in greater
detail would have added value to the publication. It is concluded that there is insignificant
presence of members from labour household in upper strata of jobs, vertical mobility is low and
Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2013 83
dependence on tea gardens have been higher in the earlier generations, which is understandable.
But this process is true for the present generation also, and the authors have rightly pointed out
that their division of data between the two sets has less analytical significance in view of the
results obtained. The crux of the analysis lies in the fact that the household of present generation
inside or outside the garden in the study are finding severe difficulties to moving out of tea garden
in spite of its present deteriorating condition. To determine the factors influencing the spatial
mobility and diversification among the present generation a binary logistic regression is used. It is
concluded that among the tea garden household the crucial factors are age, gender, education of
the household member and nearness to urban location. It would have further improved the
intergenerational mobility analysis if a set of households were taken who are from non tea sector
of the same locality under study as a control set.
The final chapter provides policy implications based on observations from previous chapters as
well as from perception of workers regarding occupational conditions and factors behind
diversification strategies. Given the limitation of such perception survey the authors concluded
that along with various factors influencing the decision, the permanent workers are less inclined to
change the occupation compared to casual workers. The lack of education and skill is considered
as one of the barriers to move out which is resulting out of poor access to education. Relatively
better social security in gardens, low asset condition and fear of exclusion due to ethnic
background also worked as bottleneck to move out of garden for better jobs.
Notwithstanding the couple of limitations as pointed out above, this book is an excellent collection
for researchers, especially those who are unaware of the global political economy of tea industry
and the process through which the entire region came to be dependent on this sector, only to fall
prey to the whirlwinds of globalisation in recent years. This historical perspective which has been
shown to be equally relevant in the genesis of current crisis faced by the sector and the region is
the most important contribution of this book. We wish more such work from the authors and hope
that the series will next take up other geo-spatial regions of the country for extensive study.
.
Jhilam Ray
JOURNAL OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING 84
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