India’s Forgotten People and Misplaced Priorities

India’s economic policy and processes over the years have been operating in such a skewed way that the majority has been kept out of the benefits and only a few have been helped, according to the recently released India Exclusion Report 2015, prepared by the Centre for Equity Studies.

India’s economic policy and processes over the years have been operating in such a skewed way that the majority has been kept out of the benefits and only a few have been helped, according to the recently released India Exclusion Report 2015, prepared by the Centre for Equity Studies, a New Delhi based think tank engaged in research and advocacy on social and economic justice issues. Deprivation and dehumanisation make a deadly cocktail for the vast majority of India’s population, who eke out an inglorious everyday of stigma, humiliation and the worst forms of human rights violations. Focusing on three essential “public goods” – urban health; urban water and sanitation; and access to equal and dignified work for women – the report points out that disadvantaged sections of the population – women, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, persons with disabilities, and persons with age-related vulnerabilities – are disproportionately among the excluded. Papers in the report highlight how working women face particularly adverse forms of exclusion. Forms of work that are particularly oppressive are also highlighted, such as manual scavenging (performed mostly by women) and hazardous occupations such as construction or mining, where also women are paid significantly less than men. Newsclick spoke to Harsh Mander from Centre for Equity Studies to learn more about the report and its findings.