This book examines the Socio-economic conditions of Dalit agricultural workers and their participation and contribution for economic development. After 1980's mant changes have taken place in the indian economy. As a result economic growth rate increased. Despite high economic growth and agricultural performance, the population of the scheduled castes and tribes could not get the fruits of high economic growth and benefits of globalisation. In th process of globalisation the rich are becoming richer and poor becoming poorer. The poverty rations have been significantly higher than for the rest of the population and the proportion of the poor in the country belonging to the SCs and STs increased. This book will see as to why the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes could not utilize the opportunity vis-a vis the non-scheduled castes and are remaining as agricultural labourers and other traditional occupants living below poverty line. Hence migration, unemployment, dropout rate in the schools, poverty and social exclusion are taken momentum among Dalits. This book will analyse the pattern of occupational distribution of dalits, access to land, agricultural workers, poverty and rural development programes and dalits participation. This book concludes that dalits should be included in the process of economic planning and policy implementation. Moreover the dalits should take active participation in the developmental activities. Inclusive economic growth may give good hope for dalits.

This book examines Ambedkar the economist. It foregrounds his economic ideas within the context of post-independence India. It also studies the socio-economic status of Dalits in the country focusing on Ambedkar’s views on inclusive and equitable growth. The volume: · Focuses on the economic writings of Ambedkar and looks at his views on caste and its economic implications, monetary and fiscal systems, as well as exchange rate and trade; · Discusses issues like land reforms and agrarian change, poverty, higher education and human rights from a Dalit perspective; · Examines the relevance of Ambedkar’s economic ideas for contemporary India. Drawing on interdisciplinary research methods, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of economics, political science, development studies, history, human rights, and South Asian studies.

Dalit Millionaires is a collection of profiles of fifteen Dalit entrepreneurs who have braved both societal and business pressures to carve out highly profitable niches for themselves. The book is a vivid chronicle of how the battle has moved from the village well to the marketplace. There are tales describing how the multimillionaire Ashok Khade, at one time, did not have even four annas to replace the nib of a broken pen, how Kalpana Saroj, a child bride, worked her way to becoming a property magnate, and how Sanjay Kshirsagar moved on from a 120-foot tenement and now seems well on his way to become the emperor of a 500-crorerupee firm. The only common thread through these stories is the spirit that if you can imagine it, you can do it.

This interdisciplinary volume examines the potential of human rights to challenge economic inequalities and their adverse impacts on human wellbeing.

Bridging the Social Gap: Perspectives on Dalit Empowerment addresses four interrelated issues. It conceptualises exclusion-linked deprivation of excluded and indigenous groups in Indian society and elaborates the concept and meaning of social exclusion in general, and of caste-, untouchability- and ethnicity-based exclusion in particular. It then presents the status of disadvantaged groups of Dalit and Adivasi and captures inter-social group inequalities in the attainment of human development. It then goes on to analyse factors associated with high deprivation of these disadvantaged groups in terms of low access to resources, employment, education and social needs. Finally, it highlights the role of caste discrimination in economic, civil and political spheres in the persistence of group inequalities. All these issues have been explained using simple language; relevant and recent data; case studies; news highlights related to civil, social, economic and political rights violation for easy and better understanding of readers.

How do we create more economic opportunities in the low-income communities of the developing world? How can these communities build greater resilience against economic uncertainties, natural disasters, wars, and the growing threats of climate change? This book reviews the research literature of economic development in low-income communities of the developing world—from rural villages to neighborhoods in the largest cities on earth. This book is unique in gathering, organizing, and synthesizing research on economic development at the community level, across the developing world, drawing from multiple disciplines, publications, methodologies, regions, and countries. Part I provides an overview and context of the many challenges facing the developing world today, as well as the often-heated debates over what "development" is and how to make it happen. Part II reviews the extensive research literature in major fields of community economic development including education and human capital, overcoming the "curse of natural resources," entrepreneurship and micro-finance, tourism, and sustainability. The audience includes undergraduate students interested in development and sustainability, graduate students and other young researchers in a wide range of disciplines who are finding their own focuses, and established researchers who wish to expand their agendas. An expanded bibliography accompanies the book as a downloadable supplement.

Dalit assertion has been a central feature of the states in the Hindi heartland since the mid-1980s, leading to the rise of political consciousness and identity-based lower-caste parties. The present study focuses on the different political response of the Congress party to identity assertion in Madhya Pradesh under the leadership of Digvijay Singh. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, in response to the strong wave of Dalit assertion that swept the region, parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) used strategies of political mobilisation to consolidate Dalit/backward votes and capture state power. In Madhya Pradesh, in contrast, the Congress party and Digvijay Singh at the historic Bhopal Conference held in January 2002 adopted a new model of development that attempted to mobilise Dalits and tribals and raise their standard of living by providing them economic empowerment. This new Dalit Agenda constitutes an alternative strategy at gaining Dalit/tribal support through of state-sponsored economic upliftment as opposed to the political mobilisation strategy employed by the BSP in Uttar Pradesh. The present study puts to test the limits of the model of state-led development, of the use of political power by an enlightened political elite to introduce change from above to address the weaker sections of society. The working of the state is thus analysed in the context of the society in which it is embedded and the former’s ability to insulate itself from powerful vested interests. In interrogating this state-led redistributive paradigm, the study has generated empirical data based on extensive fieldwork and brought to the fore both the potentials and the limitations of using the model of ‘development from above’ in a democracy. It suggests that the absence of an upsurge from below limits the ability of an enlightened political elite that mans the developmental state to introduce social change and help the weaker sections of society.