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Mkandawire
on Social
development
·
On February
2, 2008
Thandika
Mkandawire,
Director of
Geneva-based
UN Research
Institute
for Social
Development,
enquired how
some
low-income
growth and
less
democratic
countries
have more
number of
kids going
to school
than in
India
·
For years
now,
India has
proved there
need not be
a trade-off
between
democracy
and high
economic
growth rate.
·
But what it
has to do
now is to
relate
economic
growth rate
with social
development
·
Mkandawire
said the
world was
looking at
India as a
fast growing
economy in
the
developing
world but
this growth
needed to
have a
trickle-down
effect on
the poor
people.
·
However, the
process of
deliberate
re-distributive
growth had
not happened
so far and
the
government
needed to
devise some
kind of a
mechanism to
combine
economic and
social
policies
because this
would not
happen
automatically.
·
Suggesting
social
policy was
an important
instrument
for
development,
Mkandawire
said there
were some
interesting
initiatives
taken by
India for
social
development
such as the
implementation
of the
National
Rural
Employment
Guarantee
Act (NREGA)
scheme that
was being
keenly
followed at
the United
Nations.
·
The U.N. has
commissioned
studies to
look at what
is happening
and review
this
interesting
experiment
if it worked
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