Day 11 – Q 3.Inclusive growth has always been a key priority for the government. However, the difference today is not in the objective but the manner in which inclusive growth is sought to be achieved. Elucidate.

3. Inclusive growth has always been a key priority for the government. However, the difference today is not in the objective but the manner in which inclusive growth is sought to be achieved. Elucidate. 

समावेशी विकास हमेशा सरकार के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण प्राथमिकता रही है। हालांकि, आज अंतर उद्देश्य में नहीं अपितु जिस तरह से समावेशी विकास हासिल करने की कोशिश की जाती है, उसमें है। स्पष्ट करें।

Introduction:

Inclusive growth is the equitable allocation of resources with an aim to ensure the development of every section of the society. It includes the inclusion via poverty reduction, Agriculture development, social sector development including education-health, environmental sustainability etc., Inclusive growth today is defined more in terms of quality of inclusion than of quantity of inclusion. 

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Background:

The Twelfth Five Year Plan highlights the objectives of inclusive growth as the following: Inclusive growth should result in lower incidence of poverty, broad-based and significant improvement in health outcomes, universal access for children to school, increased access to higher education and improved standards of education, including skill development.

It should also be reflected in better opportunities for both wage employment and livelihood, and an improvement in the provision of basic amenities like water, electricity, roads, sanitation, and housing.

Always been a key priority for the government:

As a practice of good governance, it has been always incorporated in India from the first five-year plan – ‘wiping every tear from every eyes’ to the latest with the objective of ‘Sabka sath sabka vikas’. The government through various schemes and programmes has been trying to achieve inclusive growth. For e.g.

• Agricultural development through Large irrigation programmes, Land ceiling act etc.,
• Rural development with Agriculture centric approach. E.g. Rain-fed area development prog, Integrated rural development programme.
• Employment generation through schemes like Food for work, Swarnajayanti gram swarozgari yojana etc.,
• Backward region disparity reduction through schemes like Desert development programme etc.,

Though inclusive growth has been the objective, the manner in which it is sought to be achieved has been changed.

• Element of beneficiary: is individualistic rather than a group or a place.

e.g. Electrification to every house under saubhagya yojana.

• Citizen-centric: Bottom up approach rather than based on top down trickle-down effect. E.g. Gram panchayat development plan with programmes designed at the gram panchayat level, Social audit etc.,
• Use of technology and e-governance for quick, reliable and transparent schemes of inclusive growth. e.g. E-NAM, DBT scheme for Minimum support price, farm subsidies etc., e-education (e.g. Unnayan Banka programme of Bihar).
• Capability approach: Empowerment rather than welfare/governing approach. Demand side poverty reduction rather than on supply side as suggested by Amartya sen. E.g. poverty reduction by employment generation through schemes like DDU Grameen kaushalya yojana, skill India mission etc.,
• Emphasis on outcome than outlay. e.g. targets of reducing infant and under-5 mortality rate under swachh bharat mission than just building toilets.
• Emphasis on Last mile reach: for instance, the target under 100% immunisation target under Mission indradhanush and follow up under Intensified Indradhanush scheme.
• Long term sustainability: environmental factor is integrated in every inclusive development scheme. E.g. Forests rights act balances both the rights of tribals as well as environmental concerns.
• Backward region development with focus on revenue generation rather than revenue allotment. e.g. Investor summits in low income states like Chhattisgarh, odisha etc., Tourism promotion in North-East, Uttarakhand etc., so that they are self- sustained. 
• Comprehensiveness in inclusion to include diverse sectors like 
  • financial inclusion through schemes like PM Jan Dhan Yojana,
  • digital inclusion through like Village resource centres, common service centres, PMGDISHA etc.,
• Preventive approach than curative by addressing the core issues. E.g. emphasis on primary health care under Ayushman Bharat by creating health and wellness centres.
• Gender inclusion: At present, the element of gender equality as a part of inclusive development is more focussed. E.g. Gender budgeting, women empowering schemes like Kanyashree Prakalpa of West-Bengal etc.,

Conclusion

According to Oxfam report, the inequality is as high as 80% between the top 1% and bottom 50%. Inclusive growth in this context becomes vital, but also the empowerment approach to build this inequality is the sine-qua-non. Also, inclusion of various sections of beneficiaries is the emphasis as UNDP observed “Today, the development is measured not by ‘how much’, but by ‘who gets’”.