WRITTEN by a professor born in Calcutta who worked in Dhaka University as the faculty of Economics in 1957 and who returns from there in 1977, this book focuses on poverty which remains endemic across South Asia despite some progress in every country of the region. The author says that income poverty has been compounded by the growth of inequity and the widening of social disparities in every country, regardless of its rate of growth and poverty reduction. Poverty and inequity compromise the character of the institutions of governance, thereby aggravating social tensions as well as threatening the sustainability of the democratic process of certain South Asian countries.
The author says in this study that poverty is predicated on the proposition that the persistence of poverty and the growth in inequality derives from the unjust nature of the social order which effectively excludes the resource-poor from equitable opportunities for participating in the development process. Unless the structural injustices which underline poverty are corrected, poverty will persist in South Asia. The author suggests that for correcting injustices which deprive a significant segment of the population of South Asia from more effectively contributing to and sharing in the development process, our policy agendas need to be made more inclusive. Also needed is correcting injustice through empowerment of the excluded by strengthening their capacity to participate on more equitable terms in a market economy and democratic polity.
(Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, B1/I-1 Mohan Cooperative Industrial Area, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110 011; www.sagepub.in)
