Evolution of Social Security in the Lap of Public Action: Recounting the Experience of Kerala

K P, Kannan and Pillai N., Vijayamohanan (2007): Evolution of Social Security in the Lap of Public Action: Recounting the Experience of Kerala.

Abstract

This paper is part of a large study on the Social Protection in Rural India and China. In this paper, we attempt at a critical appraisal of the historical development and experience of social security initiatives in Kerala, India. We situate the development experience of Kerala in a conceptual framework of participatory development, which we interpret in a broad context of organization and mobilization of people at specific junctures of historical progress of a society. Thus participatory development, in our view is participation in the progressive process of realization of human rights and thus in development; that is, public action, with an effective public demand and a wiling public supply, conditioned by the legitimate function of the state. It is also attempted to categorize the on-going social security schemes according to the definitional framework of our study, that is, in terms of the definitional division of social security into basic and contingent social security.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social security; Kerala; development; contingency
• Subjects: H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H55 - Social Security and Public Pensions; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I0 - General

References

Chaudhuri, Subham, Harilal, KN, and Heller, Patrick (2004) Does Decentralization Make a Difference? A Study of the People’s Campaign for Decentralized Planning in the Indian State of Kerala, (mimeo). Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

George PS (1979) Public Distribution of Food Grains in Kerala: Income Distribution Implications and Effectiveness, Research Report 7, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington.

Gopikuttan G (1998) Housing Boom in Kerala: Causes and consequences, Ph D Thesis submitted to Kerala University (unpublished).

Government of India (2004) Report of the Task Force on Implementation of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003, Ministry of Finance, New Delhi.

Government of India (2006) Bulletin on Rural Health Statistics in India, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi.

Government of Kerala (2005) Economic Review 2004, State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram.

Government of Kerala (2006 a), Economic Review: 2005, State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram.

Government of Kerala (2006 b) Human Development Report 2005: Kerala, State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram.

Government of Kerala (2007), Economic Review: 2006, State Planning Board, Thiruvananthapuram.

Kannan KP (1988) Of Rural Proletarian Struggles: Mobilisation and Organisation of Rural Workers in South-West India. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Kannan KP (2002) The Welfare Fund Model of Social Security for Informal Sector Workers: The Kerala Experience, Working Paper No. 332, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Kannan KP and Mohan R (2003) India’s Twelfth Finance Commission: A View from Kerala, December, Working Paper No. 354, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Kannan, K.P. and Pillai, N. Vijayamohanan, (2004), “Development as a Right to Freedom: an Interpretation of the ‘Kerala Model’”, Working Paper No. 361; Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, August. (Paper presented in a National Conference on ‘Poverty as Violation of Human Rights’ organised by UNESCO in New Delhi on 10 September 2003).

Kannan KP and Pillai, N. Vijayamohanan (2005) ‘Public Action as Participatory Development: Kerala Experience Reinterpreted’ in Arjun K. Sengupta, et al. (Ed.), Reflections on the Right to Development, Centre for Development and Human Rights, New Delhi, Sage Publications, New Delhi

Kannan, K.P. and Vijayamohanan Pillai N. (2007), ‘Conceptualizing Social Security in a Human Development and Rights Perspective’, Indian Journal of Human Development Vol. 1, No. 1; January 2007; pp. 31 – 51.

Panda, Pradeep Kumar (2003) Rights-Based Strategies in the Prevention of Domestic Violence, March, Working Paper No. 344, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Pillai, N. Vijayamohanan (2003) Development as a ‘Norms-Rights Transition Process’ Through Public Action, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum, March (Processed).

Rakhe PB (2003) Estimation of Tax Leakage and its Impact on Fiscal Health in Kerala, July, Working Paper No. 347, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Ravi Raman K (2004) The Asian Development Bank Loan for Kerala (India): The Adverse Implications and Search for Alternatives, March, Working Paper No. 357, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Seema, TN (2001) Performance of Anganwadi Centres in Kerala: An Evaluation and Experiment to Develop A Model Centre with Community Participation, Discussion Paper No. 28, Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.

Suryanarayana, MH (1996) Food Security and PDS in Kerala: Form and Scope for Reform, Paper presented at the International Conference on Kerala’s Development Experience: National and Global Dimensions, 9 – 11 December, New Delhi.

United Nations UN/CDS (1975) Poverty, Unemployment and Development Policy: A Case Study of Selected Issues with Special Reference to Kerala, New York.