The Politics of Social Protection in Rural India

Social protection, in the context of informal economy, is a challenging task. When traditional societies transform into modern state and their economies prosper, formal social protection becomes indispensable. A new dynamics of the symbiotic existence of informal and formal social protection takes place. This generates a politics that shapes the access to social protection. Empirical examination of the promotive and protective social protection programmes (employment guarantee scheme and income maintenance programme) of rural India reveals that both eligibility and entitlement to 'welfare rights' are contested within the power structure of the local communities. Micro-politics within the household, social groups and communities as well as macro-politics of the political parties and internationalism interface each other in the politics of social protection. This is unraveled by examining the network of poor people in the villages of India. The path-breaking research into the multilayered politics of state, market, civil society and households, through innovative methodologies, shows how competing interests in the society shape the public policies.