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Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Global Business, Economics, Finance and

Social Sciences (GB15Kolkata Conference) ISBN: 978-1-63415-898-5

Kolkata-India. 18-20 December 2015. Paper ID:K566

1 www.globalbizresearch.org

Inclusive Growth: A Strategy for Economic Development

Issues and Initiatives

A.V.V.S.Subbalakshmi,

Asst. Professor - Commerce Division,

School of Social Sciences and Languages,

VIT University, Vellore. India.

E-mail: [email protected]

R. Balachandar,

School of Social Sciences and Languages,

VIT University, Vellore. India.

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Inclusive growth can be viewed as the process of economic growth, which focuses not only on

achieving a higher growth rate of GDP, but also endeavours to ensure that economic

development leads to a broad based improvement in quality of life of people, especially the

poor and the marginalized groups such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes

(STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the minorities and the women. Over the past many

decades of planned economic development in India, the country has passed through various

phases of low, moderate and sometimes higher growth rates. However, over these phases of

development, it was observed that the growth rate of the economy even when it was high and

very satisfying, did not make much difference to the lives of the multitude of India’s poorer

masses; their lot continued to remain miserable and pathetic. As has been observed, even

moderate to high growth rates of the economy have failed to provide much relief to masses

suffering from poverty, unemployment and deprivation. The inclusive growth strategy was,

therefore, adopted in the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12) to address these basic issues that

the poor did not benefit from Growth, Low Human Development, and Low Availability of

Essential Social Services.

___________________________________________________________________________

Keywords: Inclusive growth, Marginalised, Unemployment, Economic development, Social

services.

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]





1. Introduction

“Inclusive and sustainable development is the defining challenge of our era – Helen Clark,

UNDP Administrator”. Social inclusion means the provision of certain rights to all

individuals and groups in society, such as employment, adequate housing, health care,

education and training, etc. Inclusive growth is a concept that advances equitable

opportunities for economic participants during economic growth with benefits incurred by

every section of society. The definition of inclusive growth implies direct links between the

macroeconomic and microeconomic determinants of the economy and economic growth. The

microeconomic dimension captures the importance of structural transformation for economic

diversification and competition, while the macro dimension refers to changes in economic

aggregates such as the country’s gross national product (GNP) or gross domestic product

(GDP), total factor productivity, and aggregate factor inputs.

Over the past many decades of planned economic development in India, the country has

passed through various phases of low, moderate and sometimes higher growth rates. For

example, in the first three decades of development since 1951 (viz.1951-81), the economy

grew at a painfully slow rate of 3 to 3.5 percent, followed by the moderate growth rate of 5 to

6 percent in the next two decades, viz. 1981-2001. Tenth Plan (2002-07) ushered in the era of

rapid growth and the economy achieved over 8 percent growth rate. This high growth rate

which reached as high as 9 percent in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12), however, suffered a

setback due to worldwide recession and adverse global economic environment.

However, over these phases of development, it was observed that the growth rate of the

economy even when it was high and very satisfying, did not make much difference to the

lives of the multitude of India’s poorer masses; their lot continued to remain miserable and

pathetic. It seemed that the development process had just bypassed them or excluded them

from its ambit. And this happened because the poor and the weaker sections were not

empowered enough to participate in the development process. They were illiterate, ignorant,

and unskilled and thus, unfit to take part in development programmes and draw any benefits

from schemes and projects meant for uplifting their living standard.

It was with the objective to end this ‘exclusion’ of the poor and the weaker sections from

the ambit of development that the Eleventh Plan came with the vision of ‘inclusive growth’.

The thrust of inclusive growth strategy is to empower the poor and neglected sections of

society and making them partners in the growth process, thus enabling them to work for and

enjoy the fruits of economic development. Contemporary policy emphasis is no longer only

on eradicating absolute deprivation of income but on eradicating deprivation in its multiple

dimensions. The multiple dimensions include both economic and non-economic aspects,

which is in appreciation of the UNDP advocacy on promoting human development.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_growth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macroeconomic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microeconomic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_change

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_%28economics%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_factor_productivity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_supply

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factors_of_production





2. What Is Inclusive Growth?

K. C. Chakrabarty, Former Deputy Governor of RBI in this speech clarifies the meaning of

inclusive growth. “Inclusive growth as the literal meaning of the two words refers to both the

pace and the pattern of the economic growth. The literature on the subject draws fine

distinction between direct income redistribution or shared growth and inclusive growth. The

inclusive growth approach takes a longer term perspective as the focus is on productive

employment rather than on direct income redistribution, as a means of increasing incomes for

excluded groups. Inclusive growth is, therefore, supposed to be inherently sustainable as

distinct from income distribution schemes which can in the short run reduce the disparities,

between the poorest and the rest, which may have arisen on account of policies intended to

jumpstart growth. While income distribution schemes can allow people, to benefit from

economic growth in the short run, inclusive growth allows people to “contribute to and

benefit from economic growth”.

The ‘inclusive growth’ as a strategy of economic development received attention owing to

a rising concern that the benefits of economic growth have not been equitably shared. Growth

is inclusive when it creates economic opportunities along with ensuring equal access to them.

Apart from addressing the issue of inequality, the inclusive growth may also make the poverty

reduction efforts more effective by explicitly creating productive economic opportunities for

the poor and vulnerable sections of the society. The inclusive growth by encompassing the

hitherto excluded population can bring in several other benefits as well to the economy. The

concept “Inclusion” should be seen as a process of including the excluded as agents whose

participation is essential in the very design of the development process, and not simply as

welfare targets of development programmes (Planning Commission, 2007).

3. Why Inclusive Growth and Why Now?

Inclusive growth is a buzz-word in policy circles nowadays, among developed and

developing countries alike, as well as in international institutions. Its importance is

increasingly being recognized and highlighted in work plans and strategies of the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), G20, European Commission and the UK’s Department

for International Development. As a concept, it has been included as a proposed goal by the

Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals as a part of the post-2015

development agenda.

4. G20 Leaders Recently Recognized That:

“Too many of our citizens have yet to participate in the economic global recovery that is

underway. The G20 must strive not only for strong, sustainable and balanced growth, but also

for a more inclusive pattern of growth that will better mobilize the talent of our populations.”

In a report on inclusive growth, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and





Need for Inclusive Growth

The Poor did not benefit from

Growth

Low Human Development

Low Availability of Essential

Social Services

Development (OECD) (2012) identifies three problems that even the record levels of growth

of the 1990s and decade of 2000s failed to tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality.

These highlighted the need to address the quality of growth, in particular to improve its

inclusiveness.

5. Need for Inclusive Growth

As has been observed, even moderate to high growth rates of the economy have failed to

provide much relief to masses suffering from poverty, unemployment and deprivation. The

inclusive growth strategy was, therefore, adopted in the Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12) to

address these basic issues that are mentioned below:

6. The Poor did Not Benefit from Growth

Over half a century of economic development, it was observed that benefits of growth

were not widely dispersed to make difference to income and living standards of the poorer

and the marginal sections of society, including the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes

(STs) and minorities. The development process seems to have largely bypassed these people.

They have neither been able to actively participate in the development process, nor have they

shared in gains of socio-economic growth. Thus, the development process has not been able

to carry the poor and marginalized social groups along the growth path or that growth has not

been sufficiently inclusive.

The poor have not gained much from development process is clear from the fact that

percentage of people living below the Commission, poverty ratio was high at 27.5 percent in

2004-05. Tendulkar Committee report places poverty ratio at over 37 percent for the same

year. Though the incidence of poverty is lower than before (say 1973-74 when over half of

India’s population was living below poverty line), yet in absolute terms, incidence of poverty

has not gone down much; the number of people below poverty line declined only from 320

million in 1973-74 to 302 million in 2004-05.

7. Low Human Development

Indicators of human development such as literacy and education, and maternal and infant

mortality rates, show steady improvement, but they also suggest that the progress is slow and

we continue to lag behind several other Asian countries. Though literacy rate has gone up





from about 18 percent in 1951 to about 65 percent in 2001, but India still has the highest

number of illiterate persons (304 million in 2001) in the world. Life expectancy at birth has

increased from about 32 years (both for males and females) in 1951 to about 64 years for

males and 67 years for females in 2001. But this is still far below life expectancy of around 80

years in countries of Western Europe and 72 years in China.

8. Low Availability of Essential Social Services

Delivery of essential social services such as education, health, nutrition, clean drinking

water, sanitation, etc., has been so inadequate and inefficient that instead of mitigating, it has

actually contributed to poverty, ill health and deprivation among the poorest groups of the

society. All these indices show that growth has not been a cause of much satisfaction or

celebration, because a whole lot of poor people, minorities and many sections of society have

not gained anything from this development process. In other words growth has not been

inclusive, i.e. the growth process virtually bypassed, excluded or failed to include the poor as

participants in development, thus in assuring them a fair share in the fruits of economic

growth.

9. Inclusive Growth: The Vision and the Concept

The vision of economic growth in the Eleventh Plan is to trigger a development process

which ensures broad based improvement in quality of life of poor masses and neglected social

groups. This vision includes several interrelated components; rapid growth that reduces

poverty and creates employment opportunities, access to essential services in health and

education especially for the poor, equality of opportunity, empowerment through education

and skill development, employment opportunities, environment sustainability, gender equality

and good governance.

Inclusive growth can be viewed as the process of economic growth, which focuses not

only on achieving a higher growth rate of GDP, but also on endeavors to ensure that

economic development leads to a broad based improvement in quality of life of people,

especially the poor and the marginalized groups such as the Scheduled Castes (SCs),

Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the minorities and the women. The

objective of development policy is not just faster growth but that of inclusive growth that is a

growth process which yields broad based benefits and ensures equality of opportunity for all.





10. Contents and Constituents of Inclusive Growth Strategy

Inclusive growth aims at making the benefits of development available to the poorer and

disadvantaged sections of society through such measures as rapid reduction in poverty, more

equitable distribution of income, reduced unemployment, gender equity and provision of

essential social services like health, education, nutrition, etc. The idea is to empower the

neglected sections and make them partners in development. Based on the Eleventh Plan

Document, we can pinpoint some of the basic issues and challenges that need to be addressed

to make the growth process ‘inclusive’.

11. The Employment Challenge

Employment has emerged as a major challenge in India’s growth process. India is

currently passing through that phase of ‘demographic transition’ where population growth is

slowing down, but the population of young people entering labor force keeps on expanding.

Thus, even with rising employment opportunities, the rate of unemployment as well as the

number of people seeking employment continues to increase. Inclusive growth, thus, must

aim at creating larger avenues of employment. The Eleventh Five-Year Plan observes, “The

ability to generate an adequate number of productive employment opportunities will be a

major factor on which inclusiveness of growth will be judged!”

12. Poverty Alleviation

The persistence of poverty on the scale at which it still persists is just not acceptable. The

Expert Group Report (also known as Tendulkar Report) estimates India’s aggregate poverty

at 37.2 percent in 2004-05. According to this report, whereas overall 37.2 percent of India’s

population lived below the poverty line, the incidence of poverty was as high as 41.8 percent

Contents &

Constituents

of Inclusive

Growth

Strategy

The Employment Challenge

Poverty Alleviation

Gender Equity

Social Justice and Empowerment of the

Disadvantaged

Development with Distributive Justice

Access to Essential Services

Environmental Concerns





among the rural population and 25.7 percent among urban people in that year. It may,

however, be clarified that higher incidence of poverty shown by the Tendulkar Report (37.2

percent) compared with the standard estimates of 27.5 percent as based on the NSS data refers

to merely a changed definition of poverty and thus, does not reflect increase in poverty.

However, whichever figure we take for analysis, the fact remains that even after six decades

of development in a country that has also shown some remarkable growth rate of GDP in

recent years, the poverty ratio is unacceptably high. The Eleventh Plan, therefore, observes

that, “A decisive reduction in poverty and expansion of economic opportunities for all

sections of population is therefore, the crucial element of strategy of inclusive growth. Rapid

growth of the economy is an essential requirement to achieve this outcome since it is an

instrument for achieving a steady increase in employment and income for larger number of

people.”

13. Gender Equity

It is a matter of great discomfort that females, who constitute nearly half of India’s

population, remain largely excluded from the development process due to gender

discrimination in almost all socio-economic spheres, be it education, health or avenues of

employment. Inclusive growth strategy, therefore, attempts to more beyond mere

empowerment of women and recognizes women as agents of socio-economic change and

growth. While endeavouring to guarantee rights and entitlements of all women, inclusive

growth seeks to ensure that their needs, rights and contributions to development are well

recognized and adequately emphasized.

14. Social Justice and Empowerment of the Disadvantaged

The vision of inclusiveness must go beyond the traditional objectives of poverty

alleviation to encompass equality of opportunity as well as economic and social mobility for

all sections of society, with affirmative action for SCs, STs, OBCs, minorities and women.

The Eleventh Plan emphasizes, “There must be equality of opportunity to all with freedom

and dignity, and without social and political obstacles.”

This freedom of mobility must be accompanied by an improvement in opportunities for

economic and social advancement. For this, people belonging to the disadvantaged groups

must be provided special opportunities to develop their skills and participate in the growth

process. This outcome can only be ensured by creating a feeling of empowerment and

participation among these marginalized sections of society. The Eleventh Plan therefore

affirms, “Empowerment for disadvantaged and hitherto marginalized groups is, therefore, an

essential part of any vision of inclusive growth.”





15. Development with Distributive Justice

Inclusive growth is just not the conventional strategy of growth to which some elements of

inclusion, such as poverty alleviation and distributive justice, have been added. On the

contrary, it is a strategy which aims at achieving a particular type of growth process which

will meet the objective of inclusiveness and sustainability. According to the Economic

Survey, 2009-10 of the Government of India, “A nation interested in inclusive growth views

the same growth differently depending on whether the gains of growth are heaped primarily

on a small segment of shared widely by the population. The latter is a cause for celebration,

but not the former. In other words, growth must not be treated as an end in itself but as an

instrument for spreading prosperity to all. India’s own past experience and experience of

other nations suggest that growth is necessary for eradicating poverty, but is not a sufficient

condition.”

Therefore, it is necessary that policies for promoting growth are complemented with

policies that ensure that more and more people join the growth process. It is also necessary

that there are mechanisms in place to redistribute some of the gains to those who are unable to

take part in the market-driven development process and thus get left behind. The policies for

inclusive growth, thus, must ensure that the nation achieves a high growth rate and that the

weakest sections get maximum benefit from this growth.

16. Access to Essential Services

Poverty of a person is the result of (i) limited resources such as capital, labor, skill and

knowledge that he is endowed with, and also of (ii) his / her limited access to public goods

and services as well as natural resources. While ill health and disease prevent a person from

getting most of his or her labor, lack of training and skill prevent him from taking up more

productive jobs. Similarly, lack of all-weather road and transport facilities that connect him to

the market results only in getting him unduly low price for his produce. Non-availability of

credit facilities, inadequate social and economic infrastructure such as education, drinking

water, health centers, housing, etc., all affect one’s ability to work more productively.

According to the Eleventh Plan, “Thus, while in the short run, access to basic facilities

such as health, education, clean drinking water, etc., has impacted directly on welfare, in the

long run, it determines economic opportunities for the future. Without access to these services

one cannot be considered to have equality of opportunity.” Since access to these services for

the majority of people depend not only on their income levels, but also upon delivery of these

services through publicly funded systems, the Eleventh Plan vision of poverty reduction

includes major expansion in supply of these services.





17. Environmental Concerns

Inclusive growth must also include a clear commitment to pursue development process

which is environmentally sustainable. Natural resources such as water and land are limited,

and their per capita availability is actually diminishing due to increasing population pressure

and irrational exploitation of these resources. The development strategy must aim not only at

preserving and maintaining these resources but also at providing equitable access to those

who do not have such access to this common pool of resources. It should also be endured that

the future generations are also guaranteed equal access to these resources, i.e., they too have

at least as much of these natural resources as are available to the present generation.

Overexploitation of natural resources and environmental degradation reduce the well-being of

people, especially the poorer sections who depend much more on natural common property

resources.

18. Social Sector Initiatives

Several programmes, schemes and projects have been launched by the Government, both

at the Central and the State levels to rapidly promote inclusive growth. These programmes

and schemes aim at providing basic education, health care and other essential services to the

poor, weaker and neglected sections of the society with a view to empowering them to

participate in development activities and improving their employment and earning prospects

through self-employment and wage employment programmes. Special attention is being paid

to the women, minorities and the backward sections, including SCs, and STs and specific

schemes are being devised and implemented to improve their economic and social position.

In this connection, mention may be made of the early schemes such as Integrated Rural

Development Programme (IRDP), National Rural Employment Programmes (NREP),

Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM), etc. Later on Jawahar Rozhar Yojana

(JRY) Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozhar Yojana (SGSY) and Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya

Yojana (PMGY) were launched till the all-encompassing Mahatma Gandhi National Rural

Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was implemented in 2006. Schemes to build

up rural and urban infrastructure were also put into operation to help the poor. The National

Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005 to provide quality health services in rural areas.

Right to Education Act came into force in April 2010 that seeks to provide free and

compulsory education to all children, including the children of the poor and weaker sections.

These initiatives are being earnestly pursed for the empowerment of the poor and the pursuit

of inclusive growth.

19. Key ingredients in an inclusive growth strategy

Some of the key ingredients for inclusive growth that are generally agreed upon include:

Structural transformation and broad-based growth





Investment in human capital

Job creation

Social protection

Progressive tax policies

Non-discrimination, social inclusion and participation

Strong institutions

20. Trends in Social Sector Expenditure

Social sector expenditure or expenditure on social and public health and family welfare

facilities, water supply and sanitation, nutrition, housing for Government as well as State

Governments on such services includes expenditure of the Union services as education, sports

and culture, medical the poor, welfare of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other

Backward Classes and Minorities. Since a major section of such economically weaker and

socially deprived sections live in rural areas, expenditure on rural development is also

included in the social sector expenditure.

Central Government Expenditure on Social Services and Rural Development

(as percent of total expenditure)

Note: RE: Revised Estimates

Source: Economic Survey 2013-14

Central Government expenditure on social services and rural level increased over the past

years. As a result, ratio of Government’s total expenditure has gone up from 13.75 percent in

2005-06 to 18 percent in 2010-11, and is estimated to be about 17 percent in 2013-14. Since

many social services are provided by the States and many welfare schemes are funded by

them, it is appropriate to study the trend in social sector expenditure as comprising both the

Central Government and State Governments, and thus analyze the trend in combined social

sector expenditure.

Sl.

No. Item

2005-06

Actual

2009-10

Actual

2010-11

Actual

2012-13

RE

2013-14

BE

1

Social Service

a. Education, Sports, Youth

Affairs

b. Health and Family Welfare

c. Water Supply, Housing, etc.

d. Information and Broadcasting

e. Welfare of SCs/STs and

OBCs

f. Labor and Employment

g. Social Welfare and Nutrition

h. North-eastern Areas

i. Other Social Services

Total

3.71

1.89

2.08

0.30

0.33

0.25

0.84

0.00

0.40

9.79

3.96

1.90

2.20

0.20

0.41

0.22

0.79

0.02

1.87

13.06

4.56

1.98

2.35

0.21

0.58

0.24

1.01

0.02

1.66

12.61

4.38

1.81

1.88

0.18

0.54

0.26

1.13

0.19

1.56

11.93

4.38

1.99

2.20

0.17

0.62

0.29

1.21

0.16

1.80

12.83

2 Rural Development 3.12 4.27 3.51 2.49 2.57

3 Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak

Yojana (PMGSY) 0.83 1.11 1.87 0.70 1.30

4 Total Social Service, Rural

Dev., and PMGSY 13.75 18.44 18.00 15.12 16.70

5 Total Central Government

Expenditure 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00





Combined expenditure of the Central and State Governments on social services as a

percentage of total expenditure has increased from about 21 percent in 2005-06 to over 25

percent in 2011-12, of which nearly 11 percent was on education, about 5 percent on health

and around 9 percent on other services. Expenditure on social services as a proportion of GDP

was barely 5.5 percent during 2005-06. It increased to over 6.7 percent in 2011-12.

Expenditure on education accounted for about 3.1 percent and on health care services for

about 1.3 percent of GDP in 2011-12.

21. UNDP and Inclusive Growth

Around the world we see remarkable evidence of human progress. There have been

significant advances towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Many millions

more children go to school, and many millions more people enjoy better health. Women have

greater opportunities to realize their potential. At the same time, the world faces persistently

high levels of inequality and exclusion. Seventy-five percent of people around the globe today

live in societies where income is less equally distributed than it was 20 years ago. The

environment on which we all depend is under threat from growing levels of greenhouse gas

emissions, biodiversity loss, and acidifying oceans. In short, the world is coming up against

the limits of pursuing short-term gains while ignoring long-term consequences.

The defining challenge of our era is to shift to new models of development. Growth can be

more inclusive and more sustainable, as the experiences of many countries have shown. Such

growth can reduce poverty and inequality while also protecting our planet’s ecosystems. And,

by managing the risks and uncertainties which are always with us, people, communities, and

institutions can become more resilient to shocks and better able to maintain the progress they

have made.

UNDP and the wider UN development system are fully engaged in the international effort

to shape this new agenda. We offer our expertise in development thinking and practice, and in

bringing the voices of the world’s peoples into deliberations. Through 2015, we will continue

a final push to achieve the MDGs, including through MDG acceleration initiatives, which are

supporting more than 50 countries to make progress on off-track goals and targets. UNDP

will continue to work with its partners around the world on eradicating poverty in a way

which simultaneously reduces inequality and exclusion and avoids wrecking our ecosystems.

This is our commitment to people now and in the future. 2010 has been an extremely

important year for India. It has been a year of much debate and discussion on issues central to

India’s democracy and the country’s unprecedented growth in the face of the global financial

crisis. It has also been a particularly energetic year for discourses to address inclusion – and

the millions left behind even as India’s growth continues to accelerate. The findings of the

2010 Global Human Development Report, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human





Development resonate with concern over persistent inequalities.India is one of the top-ten

performers globally in terms of income growth but loses 30 percent of its Human

Development Index value when adjusted for inequality. Similarly, the India Millennium

Development Goal (MDG) Report 2009 calls for us to redouble our efforts in achieving the

MDGs of reducing hunger and malnutrition, improving access to sanitation and realizing

gender equality. Further, poverty is set to rise across eight states in India.

22. India Factsheet Gender and Social Exclusions Indicators

Sl. No. Gender related indicators 2011

1 Gender Inequality Index (GII) 0.617

2 GII Rank out of 146 129

1996 2006

3 Gender Related Development Index (GDI) 0.514 0.590

4 Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) 0.416 0.497

5 Index of ‘Political Participation & Decision-making Power’ 0.573 0.625

6 Index of ‘Economic Participation and Decision-making Power’ 0.443 0.546

7 Index of ‘Power over Economic Resources’ 0.231 0.319

2000 2010

8 Rate of Cognizable crimes against women (%) 14.1 18

2001 2011

9 Male Literacy rate 75.3 82.14

10 Female Literacy rate 53.7 65.46

11 Gender Gap in Literacy 21.6 16.68

2000 2011

12 Proportion of seats held by women in Parliament (%) 8.9 10.7

Development Indicators for Social Groups 2000 2004-05

13 Human Development Index for SC 0.303 0.328

14 Human Development Index for ST 0.27 0.27

15 Human Poverty Index for SC 41.47 46.88

16 Human Poverty Index for ST 47.79 54.56

Source: India Fact Sheet, UNDP

23. Conclusion

The progress towards inclusiveness is more difficult to assess, because inclusiveness is a

multidimensional concept. 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 in improvement in provision of basic amenities like water,

electricity, roads, sanitation and housing. Particular attention needs to be paid to the needs of

the SC/ST and OBC population.





Women and children constitute a group which accounts for 70% of the population and

deserves special attention in terms of the reach of relevant schemes in many sectors.

Minorities and other excluded groups also need special programmes to bring them into the

mainstream. To achieve inclusiveness in all these dimensions requires multiple interventions,

and success depends not only on introducing new policies and Government programmes, but

on institutional and attitudinal changes brought about, which are time-taking. An

important consequence of the focus on inclusion during the Eleventh Plan has been

heightened awareness about inclusiveness and empowerment amongst people. A greater

desire to access information about the rights and entitlements made available by law and

policy, and eagerness to demand accountability from the public delivery systems augurs well

for the future.

References

Annual report (2013-14). UNDP, New York

Inclusive growth: Strategy, Issues and Initiatives. (December, 2014). Competition Success Review

Suryanarayana, M.H. (2008): “What Is Exclusive About ‘Inclusive Growth’?” Economic and Political

Weekly, Vol. 43, No. 43, pp. 91-101.

UNDP in India, Results from 2010

What is “inclusive growth”? (August 2014). CAFOD Discussion Paper

http://www.undp.org.in

https://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com

http://www.undp.org.in/

https://mostlyeconomics.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/what-is-inclusive-growth/

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