The introduction of three health insurance schemes of RSBY, Arogyasri and Yeshasvini, aimed at ad... more The introduction of three health insurance schemes of RSBY, Arogyasri and Yeshasvini, aimed at addressing the health needs of the poor, by different departments in the state raises the issue of duplication. If one takes the other arrangements made by the government to meet health expenses incurred by the staff and organised sector workers, the situation becomes complex. Added to these, there are private initiatives. It is in this context that this study is undertaken for the Planning Department, GoK. Although there are a number of schemes, we seek to examine the major health insurance schemes introduced by the Government of Karnataka in line with its stated health policy. In the following Section, we present some details on the three schemes, namely, ‘Yeshasvini’, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana’ and the ‘Vajpayee Arogyasri’, to examine their design and raise study questions. The Planning Department was keen to study Arogyasri and RSBY despite that these two schemes were just introduced at the time of initiation of this study as it was felt that this would provide early evidence and lessons on the study questions.
1 This paper assesses the potential of NREGS, India’s flagship rural public works programme, to c... more 1 This paper assesses the potential of NREGS, India’s flagship rural public works programme, to contribute to a shift towards climate-smart agriculture with the help of primary data from one South Indian district. It analyses the role of institutions (local elected councils and village assembly meetings) addressing collective action issues in the planning, implementation, oversight and evaluation of NREG works, as well as on the importance of property rights. It has been found that incidence and type of irrigation, dependence on agriculture and governance within collective action institutions influence the quality of assets created, and that this will affect the prospects of climate-smart agriculture. The lack of clearly demarcated ownership rights on common property resources impede the progress towards climate smart-agriculture, while the tenancy market makes it less inclusive.
Karnataka is a leading state in the initiation of decentralisation policies and reforms. The stat... more Karnataka is a leading state in the initiation of decentralisation policies and reforms. The state brought out path-breaking legislation in 1985 and made a concerted attempt to implement the Panchayat Raj System during 1987–88 under new legislation (Government of Karnataka 1983). A three-tier panchayat system was established in 1987, which had the following features: devolution of a large number of development functions and responsibilities, merging the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) with the Zilla Parishad, providing administrative personnel, devolving funds from the state government and constituting a Finance Commission.
Community lighting is a public good, the provision of which is considered to be essential to impr... more Community lighting is a public good, the provision of which is considered to be essential to improve the quality of life and to promote orderly social life. Article 243G of the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment transfers the function of rural electrification to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), wherein Gram Panchayats (GPs) are held responsible for the installation of electric transmission poles, and operation and maintenance of streetlights. In the context of limited fiscal decentralisation in Karnataka and growing dependence of GPs on grants from higher levels of government, the paper analyses the question of whether GPs can afford the provision of streetlight services. With the help of data collected from 5,212 GPs in Karnataka, the paper concludes that GPs are not able to afford the expenditure on operation and maintenance of streetlight services. Regression analysis on factors influencing the affordability of GPs in the provision of streetlight services shows that grants to GPs ...
The concept of accountability has generated extensive discussion in studies of international deve... more The concept of accountability has generated extensive discussion in studies of international development, linking it with good governance, democratisation, participatory development and empowerment. India's national rural employment guarantee scheme, which aims to improve the rural infrastructure and reduce poverty by providing wage work to the rural poor, involves mandatory social audit by the beneficiaries of the scheme, in order to ensure accountability of those implementing the scheme. In this paper, we examine the social audit process in a district in the state of Karnataka to ascertain the role played by the beneficiaries in achieving such accountability. We find that Vigilance and Monitoring Committees, entrusted to spearhead the social audit process in villages, consist mainly of males and cultivators, some of whom are large landowners. We also find that social audits are dominated by the local elite who stifle “voices” from below.
Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital... more Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital used in the garment sector is much higher. However, the share of women workers in the total value of production in both these sectors is exploitatively low. Wages paid to agarbathi rollers and women garment workers have been less than the minimum wages. Health hazards are severe for agarbathi rollers due to the nature of the raw materials and the work. The provision of social security benefits to workers in both these sectors is meagre. Thus, the urban informal women workers are a severely exploited lot in terms of both wages paid and poor working conditions. In addition, they face harassment of varying kinds and degrees at the workplace.
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic ...
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic ...
Elite capture is likely to occur in development schemes in societies where socioeconomic inequali... more Elite capture is likely to occur in development schemes in societies where socioeconomic inequality is more pronounced and where people are unable to raise their voices against the powerful elite. Checks and balances are, therefore, incorporated into a development scheme such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to prevent misuse. This paper examines the extent to which these checks and balances have worked. The authors argue, that, notwithstanding checks and balances in the design of MGNREGS, the evidence shows misuse of resources in several forms and makes some suggestions towards making checks and balances effective.
Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital... more Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital used in the garment sector is much higher. However, the share of women workers in the total value of production in both these sectors is exploitatively low. Wages paid to agarbathi rollers and women garment workers have been less than the minimum wages. Health hazards are severe for agarbathi rollers due to the nature of the raw materials and the work. The provision of social security benefits to workers in both these sectors is meagre. Thus, the urban informal women workers are a severely exploited lot in terms of both wages paid and poor working conditions. In addition, they face harassment of varying kinds and degrees at the workplace.
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic time trends. The validity of our identification strategy is confirmed by placebo tests. We argue that since most of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and the poorest of the poor are agricultural wage labourers, rural public works constitute a potentially important anti-poverty policy tool.
The introduction of three health insurance schemes of RSBY, Arogyasri and Yeshasvini, aimed at ad... more The introduction of three health insurance schemes of RSBY, Arogyasri and Yeshasvini, aimed at addressing the health needs of the poor, by different departments in the state raises the issue of duplication. If one takes the other arrangements made by the government to meet health expenses incurred by the staff and organised sector workers, the situation becomes complex. Added to these, there are private initiatives. It is in this context that this study is undertaken for the Planning Department, GoK. Although there are a number of schemes, we seek to examine the major health insurance schemes introduced by the Government of Karnataka in line with its stated health policy. In the following Section, we present some details on the three schemes, namely, ‘Yeshasvini’, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana’ and the ‘Vajpayee Arogyasri’, to examine their design and raise study questions. The Planning Department was keen to study Arogyasri and RSBY despite that these two schemes were just introduced at the time of initiation of this study as it was felt that this would provide early evidence and lessons on the study questions.
1 This paper assesses the potential of NREGS, India’s flagship rural public works programme, to c... more 1 This paper assesses the potential of NREGS, India’s flagship rural public works programme, to contribute to a shift towards climate-smart agriculture with the help of primary data from one South Indian district. It analyses the role of institutions (local elected councils and village assembly meetings) addressing collective action issues in the planning, implementation, oversight and evaluation of NREG works, as well as on the importance of property rights. It has been found that incidence and type of irrigation, dependence on agriculture and governance within collective action institutions influence the quality of assets created, and that this will affect the prospects of climate-smart agriculture. The lack of clearly demarcated ownership rights on common property resources impede the progress towards climate smart-agriculture, while the tenancy market makes it less inclusive.
Karnataka is a leading state in the initiation of decentralisation policies and reforms. The stat... more Karnataka is a leading state in the initiation of decentralisation policies and reforms. The state brought out path-breaking legislation in 1985 and made a concerted attempt to implement the Panchayat Raj System during 1987–88 under new legislation (Government of Karnataka 1983). A three-tier panchayat system was established in 1987, which had the following features: devolution of a large number of development functions and responsibilities, merging the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) with the Zilla Parishad, providing administrative personnel, devolving funds from the state government and constituting a Finance Commission.
Community lighting is a public good, the provision of which is considered to be essential to impr... more Community lighting is a public good, the provision of which is considered to be essential to improve the quality of life and to promote orderly social life. Article 243G of the 73 rd Constitutional Amendment transfers the function of rural electrification to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs), wherein Gram Panchayats (GPs) are held responsible for the installation of electric transmission poles, and operation and maintenance of streetlights. In the context of limited fiscal decentralisation in Karnataka and growing dependence of GPs on grants from higher levels of government, the paper analyses the question of whether GPs can afford the provision of streetlight services. With the help of data collected from 5,212 GPs in Karnataka, the paper concludes that GPs are not able to afford the expenditure on operation and maintenance of streetlight services. Regression analysis on factors influencing the affordability of GPs in the provision of streetlight services shows that grants to GPs ...
The concept of accountability has generated extensive discussion in studies of international deve... more The concept of accountability has generated extensive discussion in studies of international development, linking it with good governance, democratisation, participatory development and empowerment. India's national rural employment guarantee scheme, which aims to improve the rural infrastructure and reduce poverty by providing wage work to the rural poor, involves mandatory social audit by the beneficiaries of the scheme, in order to ensure accountability of those implementing the scheme. In this paper, we examine the social audit process in a district in the state of Karnataka to ascertain the role played by the beneficiaries in achieving such accountability. We find that Vigilance and Monitoring Committees, entrusted to spearhead the social audit process in villages, consist mainly of males and cultivators, some of whom are large landowners. We also find that social audits are dominated by the local elite who stifle “voices” from below.
Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital... more Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital used in the garment sector is much higher. However, the share of women workers in the total value of production in both these sectors is exploitatively low. Wages paid to agarbathi rollers and women garment workers have been less than the minimum wages. Health hazards are severe for agarbathi rollers due to the nature of the raw materials and the work. The provision of social security benefits to workers in both these sectors is meagre. Thus, the urban informal women workers are a severely exploited lot in terms of both wages paid and poor working conditions. In addition, they face harassment of varying kinds and degrees at the workplace.
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic ...
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic ...
Elite capture is likely to occur in development schemes in societies where socioeconomic inequali... more Elite capture is likely to occur in development schemes in societies where socioeconomic inequality is more pronounced and where people are unable to raise their voices against the powerful elite. Checks and balances are, therefore, incorporated into a development scheme such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to prevent misuse. This paper examines the extent to which these checks and balances have worked. The authors argue, that, notwithstanding checks and balances in the design of MGNREGS, the evidence shows misuse of resources in several forms and makes some suggestions towards making checks and balances effective.
Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital... more Both agarbathi and garment industries are highly labour-intensive, although the extent of capital used in the garment sector is much higher. However, the share of women workers in the total value of production in both these sectors is exploitatively low. Wages paid to agarbathi rollers and women garment workers have been less than the minimum wages. Health hazards are severe for agarbathi rollers due to the nature of the raw materials and the work. The provision of social security benefits to workers in both these sectors is meagre. Thus, the urban informal women workers are a severely exploited lot in terms of both wages paid and poor working conditions. In addition, they face harassment of varying kinds and degrees at the workplace.
It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on ... more It has long been hypothesised that public works programmes, in addition to the welfare effect on those directly employed, can influence equilibrium wage rates. In this paper we test the impact of the Indian government’s major public works programme, the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG), on agricultural wages. The rollout of NREG in three phases is used to identify difference-in-difference estimates of the programme effect. Using monthly wage data from the period 2000-2011 for a panel of 249 districts across 19 Indian states, we find that on average NREG boosts the real daily agricultural wage rates by 5.3 per cent. It takes 6 to 11 months for an NREG intensity shock to feed into higher wages. The wage effect appears to be gender neutral and biased towards unskilled labour. It is positive across different implementation stages and months. It remains significant even after controlling for rainfall; district and time fixed effects; and phase-wise linear, quadratic, and cubic time trends. The validity of our identification strategy is confirmed by placebo tests. We argue that since most of the world’s poor live in rural areas, and the poorest of the poor are agricultural wage labourers, rural public works constitute a potentially important anti-poverty policy tool.
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Papers by Manjula Ramachandra