10 October, 2022Urban exclusion: Rethinking social protection in India in the wake of Covid-19
Economic insecurity caused by lockdowns during the early days of Covid-19 forced many households to rely on government welfare schemes to fulfil their consumption needs. Using data from the June 2020 ...
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Pallavi Choudhuri Sonalde Desai Santanu Pramanik 
13 June, 2022
- Articles
Fatal oblivion: India's National Family Benefit Scheme
The National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) – which provides financial assistance to families in the event of the death of a breadwinner – has been plagued by low budget allocations, restricted cove...
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Jasmin Naur Hafiz
- 03 January, 2022
- Perspectives
The implications of India’s spatial development
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “poverty is the worst form of violence”. In this piece, Ejaz Ghani highlights India’s poverty burden, its regional disparities and convergence thereof. He highlights ho...
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Ejaz Ghani
- 30 September, 2022
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How many jobs were lost in urban India during lockdown?
The nationwide lockdown imposed in March 2020 to contain the spread of Covid-19, disrupted economic activity – particularly in urban India. Using data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey for the p...
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Arup Mitra Jitender Singh
- 27 April, 2021
- Perspectives
Covid-19: Addressing stigma and misconceptions
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in India, there has been stigmatisation of patients and their families, and discriminatory attitudes towards marginalised groups as well as frontline workers. Based on...
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Asad Islam Debayan Pakrashi Michael Vlassopoulos Liang Choon Wang
- 26 March, 2021
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Energy access for marginalised communities: Evidence from rural India
While overall energy access of Indian households has improved rapidly over the past decade, access to clean fuel is still low as compared to electricity. Besides, social structures and hierarchies con...
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Namrata Chindarkar Setu Pelz Johannes Urpelainen
- 25 March, 2021
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Covid-19: How well are government schemes supporting Bihar’s vulnerable populations?
The immediate adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdown was visibly greater for migrant workers and their households, whose ability to access government schemes in their villages...
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Advaita Rajendra Ankur Sarin Karan Singhal
- 18 March, 2021
- Notes from the Field
DUET re-examined
In September 2020, Jean Drèze’s proposal for an urban work programme called DUET (Decentralised Urban Employment and Training) was presented on I4I. This was followed by an extensive symposium in w...
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Jean Drèze
- 09 March, 2021
- Perspectives
In-kind transfers as insurance
Academics and policymakers worldwide are leading the push towards unconditional cash as the preferred mode of transfer from the government to the poor. Yet surveys across countries find that large pro...
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Lucie Gadenne Sam Norris Monica Singhal Sandip Sukhtankar
- 01 March, 2021
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Did MNREGA cushion job losses during the pandemic?
The 2021-22 Budget allocation for MNREGA is 34% lower than the revised estimates for the programme in 2020-21. Analysing official MNREGA data, this article suggests that districts that have historical...
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Farzana Afridi Kanika Mahajan Nikita Sangwan
- 11 February, 2021
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How wide is the ‘sink of localism’ in India?
While spatial segregation based on caste or religion is a constitutive feature of social life in India, there have been very few systematic studies of it. This article presents central findings from t...
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Naveen Bharathi Deepak Malghan Andaleeb Rahman
- 18 January, 2021
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Declining common lands in India: Role of economic inequality
The area under common pool land resources (CPLRs), which are crucial to rural livelihoods in India, has recorded a steady decline over the last three decades. Common land is diverted either as private...
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Deepak Malghan Arnab Mukherji Sneha Thapliyal
- 14 January, 2021
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Welfare through workfare? Lessons from the early days of MNREGA
Workfare programmes are an old tool to provide necessary income support to the poorest in times of recessions, droughts, and now pandemics. Yet, these are often questioned for their effectiveness. As ...
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Stefan Klonner Christian Oldiges
- 16 December, 2020
- Articles
Building resilience among ultra-poor for times of crisis
Lack of integration into the existing social protection system exacerbates the poor's vulnerabilities, leaving them without adequate support structures during a crisis. In this note, Shagun Sabarwal a...
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Maximilian Lohnert Shagun Sabarwal
- 11 December, 2020
- Notes from the Field
Does workfare work? MNREGA during Covid-19
In the wake of the large-scale return of migrant workers from cities to rural areas on account of the Covid-19 lockdowns and associated job losses, it was apparent that MNREGA would need to play a cru...
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Sudha Narayanan Christian Oldiges Shree Saha
- 01 December, 2020
- Articles
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Wealth inequality, class, and caste in India: 1961-2012
The level of wealth inequality in India is close to that of some highly unequal countries in the world. This article assesses the long-term evolution of wealth inequality in the country for the period...
- Nitin Kumar Bharti
- 28 June, 2019
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Covid-19: What can be done immediately to help vulnerable population
With over 80% of India’s workforce employed in the informal sector and one-third working as casual labour, Covid-19's spread and subsequent unplanned lockdowns, have created economic havoc in the li...
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- 25 March, 2020
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EWS reservation in higher education: Affirmative action or vote bank politics?
The Constitution (103rd Amendment) Act, 2019, provides for 10% reservation for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in higher educational institutions within the general category. In this post, Devi...
- Devika Malhotra Sharma
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