Exploring Shankar Pathak's Ideas on Indian Social Policy, Welfare and Social Development

Venkat Pulla

doi:10.13189/ijrh.2019.070201

Abstract

Any discussion around India's Social Policy, Social Welfare and Social Development ought to be laid in the context of India's sixty years of planning history. In this critical essay, I explore the views and treatise of octogenarian Shankar Pathak on social welfare policies and development of the poor in India. In those sixty years of planning, India has certainly made strides, such as producing some billionaires that enter into who's who list compiled by Forbes, alongside its poor making world's record officially included into the top ten poor nations. India's situation can be aptly captured and surmised by borrowing the famous saying of American Political Economist ‘doing better but feeling worse' (Wildavsky,1977, pp 105). The current paper examines Pathak's views on social policy, welfare and social development in India and to an extent his views on social work profession in India, that were made available to Indian social work academia through his book ( 2013) on ‘Social Policy Social Welfare and Social Development' brought out during his sojourn in Bangalore and further through a cursory view of his blogs.

Highlights

The current paper examines Pathak’s views on social policy, welfare and social development in India and to an extent his views on social work profession in India, that were made available to Indian social work academia through his book ( 2013) on ‘Social Policy Social Welfare and Social Development’ brought out during his sojourn in Bangalore and further through a cursory view of his blogs
I have spent some 38 years in India and even if I miss reflecting on my innings until my teenage, I vividly remember about my growing awareness of two rather pervasive phenomena in the Indian society i.e. a hierarchical structure and abundance of stark inequalities amongst people
I used to ask my teachers about a generic question: Why? Overtime I studied social work at the Tata Institute of Social Work, in its hay days when late Professor M

Summary

Introduction

I have spent some 38 years in India and even if I miss reflecting on my innings until my teenage, I vividly remember about my growing awareness of two rather pervasive phenomena in the Indian society i.e. a hierarchical structure and abundance of stark inequalities amongst people. Our social hierarchical structure and secondly the stark inequalities amongst people will stretch the limits of the profession. Historians could see this being an Indian characteristic for centuries. The task of reviewing sixty years of official economic and development planning in India from the lens of social work constitutes a review of how good, bad, ugly and pervasive, this commitment has been towards looking after the poorer and vulnerable sections in the Indian society. Education will be available to every child’ (Rajiv Gandhi 1987, quoted in Pathak, 2013)

Poverty and Social Work

Do Bureaucrats Hate Poor?

Wage increase

Poverty and Democratic Governance