Book Talk: Re-imagining Social Protection Programs: Lessons from India
May 14, 2024 | 10:30 h - 11:30 h
We'd like to invite you to the Book Talk “Re-imagining Social Protection Programs: Lessons from India”.
Speaker: Andaleeb Rahman, Research Economist, Tata-Cornell Institute, Cornell University
How to join
The lecture will be held in hybrid mode (zoom and in-person at ZEF).
You can join us in-person at ZEF, ground floor, conference room, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn,
or online via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/j/61030444217?pwd=V0xDL3I3MytBNzBLcEhpNDgxeVBJZz09
Abstract: Social welfare programs which include in-kind food and nutritional assistance, wage support through public works programs, or direct cash transfers are at the forefront of global policy debates to overcome poverty and destitution. India has been one of the fecund empirical sites for such theoretical debates given the country’s high poverty and persistently poor human development outcomes despite an array of social welfare programs. Combining a historical perspective on anti-poverty policies and the ongoing structural transformation of the Indian economy, this book highlights the key challenges and scope for innovations in designing a social safety net system in terms of the targeted beneficiaries (focus), program design (form), and the stated welfare objective (scope). India’s experience provides policy lessons for other developing countries in the process of reforming and building an efficient social safety net system.
Andaleeb Rahman is a research economist at the Tata-Cornell Institute (TCI), Cornell University. Andaleeb works in the area of development economics with a particular focus on food policy, agricultural development, and social protection. He has published widely across a range of journals which include Food Policy, World Development, Journal of Development Studies, Economics Letters, Urban Studies, etc. His first collaborative book on India’s food systems was published in 2019 and his new book (co-authored with Prof. Prabhu Pingali) on re-imagining the focus, form, and scope of social welfare programs in India came out earlier this year.
