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Social infrastructure has positive externalities. It has a significant role in the economic development and welfare of a country. It is empirically proven and widely recognised that education and health impact the growth of an economy. Investing in human capital by way of education, skill development,
training and provision of health care facilities enhances the productivity of the workforce and welfare of the population. In this regard, contemporary documents suggest the following actions19 for the governments in the country:
(i) Action is needed in the direction of improving the quality of education provided in schools to arrest and reverse the decline in enrolment in government schools. Besides, it is essential to improve the educational outcomes in both public and private schools. An important contributor to improvement in the quality of education would be an increase in the per centage of qualified teachers.
(ii) India needs to overcome the development challenges through innovative models of delivery of services. It has a critical role to play in India’s march towards double-digit growth.
(iii) Without improvement in social infrastructure development of a country is incomplete. To capitalise and leverage the advantages that India will have on the demographic front with a large segment in the productive age group, social infrastructure requires fresh impetus with focus on efficiency to improve the quality of human capital. To foster education and skill development of its diverse population, including the marginalised sections, women and the differently-abled, and to provide quality health and other social services, the Government has identified the potential of technology platforms which can significantly improve efficiency in the system.
(iv) Overhauling of the subsidy regime is needed with faster pace. It will not only rationalise the subsidies but bring in variety of other benefits in the service delivery system—inclusion of the needy population; exclusion of the fake accounts; prevention of corruption and leakages; traceability; authentication of delivery; transparency and accountability. The idea of technology-enabled Direct Benefits Transfers (DBT), namely
the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) number trinity solution, introduced by the GoI in this regard is believed to be a game-changing move.
(v) India needs to include the behavioural dimensions of the target population in its framework of policy-making to realise desired results in the area of promoting the cause of the social infrastructure. India has
already included this aspect in its sanitation campaign (especially, in checking open defecation)—the same is needed in the other areas of importance, too.
(vi) There is a need of integrating the social sector initiatives of the Centre, states and the local bodies. The new ‘think tank’ NITI Aayog can play a suitable platform in this regard.
(vii) Strengthening of the local bodies (the PRIs) will not only boost the social sector but it will have an effect of externality in the form of an aware, awakened and participative citizenry. Through them, India can garner the support of civil society and the NGO.
(viii) There is need to orient the private sector (corporate world) towards this cause. Their inclusion in this area will not only bring in fund to this fund-scarce sector but enable the country to use their expertise in the promotion of the social infrastructure.
1. Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom, Oxford University Press, N. Delhi, 2000, pp. 3-11.
2. World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behaviour, world Bank, Washigton DC, 2015.
3. World Happiness Report-2012 & 2013, Sponsored by the UNO, N. York, 2013 & 2014.
4. Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007–12), Planning Commission, GoI, N. Delhi.
5. Increased allocations of fund as well as enhanced performance is reported by the
Economic Surveys of 1991–92 to 2014–15, MoF, GoI, N. Delhi.
6. Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze, An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions, Allen Lane, Penguin Books, London, 2013, pp. vii-xiii.
7. Economic Survey 2014–15, MoF, GoI, N. Delhi, pp. 131–146.
8. Human Development Report 2015, UNDP, N. York, USA
9. Economic Survey 2016-17 (MoF, GoI, N. Delhi, Vol. 1, pp. 27-30). The Economic Survey, for the last two years, featured very useful analyses on “women issues”. While in 2014-15 it covered ‘violence against women related coercive family planning methods’, in 2015-16 it featured the importance of government interventions to ensure long-term wellbeing of women and child under the topic ‘mother and child’. Continuing with the process, the 2016-17 issue has covered
the issue of “women’s privacy”.
10. Economic Survey, 1999–2000, Ministry of MoF, GoI, N. Delhi.
11. Based on the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014; Educational Statistics at a Glance 2014, Ministry of HRD—as quoted by the Economic Survey 2015-16 and Economic Survey 2016-17, Vol. 1,
pp. 162-163.
12. The latest and the 5th Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey (EUS)-2015-16, Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour & Employment—as quoted by the Economic Survey 2016-17, MoF, GoI, N. Delhi, pp. 161-162.
13. Ministry of Labour & Employment, GoI, N. Delhi, March 2017 and Economic Survey 2016-17, MoF, GoI, N. Delhi, Vol. 1, pp. 162.
14. As the government documents have been quoted by the Economic Survey 2015- 16, op. cit., Vol. 2,
pp. 202-203.
15. As the government documents have been quoted by the Economic Survey 2015- 16, op. cit., Vol. 2,
pp. 203-206.
16. Economic Survey 2015-16, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 206.
17. As the government documents have been quoted by the Economic Survey 2015- 16, op. cit., Vol. 2,
pp. 207-209.
18. Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India quoted by the Economic Survey 2016- 17, MoF, GoI, N. Delhi, Vol. 1, pp. 160-161.
19. The suggestions are based on the documents—World Happiness Report-2015 (SDSN, UNO); World Development Report- 2015 & 2016 (World Bank); Economic Survey 2015-16 & 2016-17 (GoI); India Development Report-2015; and the NITI Aayog (GoI).