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Do Rights Work? Law, Activism, and the Employment Guarantee Scheme

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  • Joshi, Anuradha

Abstract

Summary Recent, "rights-based approaches" offer a promising route for bringing about social change. However, we have little experience with state-provided legally enforceable socio-economic rights. This paper examines one of the few examples of a legally granted socio-economic right--a limited "right to work"--that has existed in one state of India for over 25 years in the form of the Employment Guarantee Scheme. The paper argues that legal underpinnings do not automatically enable the poor to obtain rights; however, legal rights have important indirect effects for pro-poor activist organizations including mobilizing membership, protecting activists from arbitrary action, and shifting public discourse.

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  • Joshi, Anuradha, 2010. "Do Rights Work? Law, Activism, and the Employment Guarantee Scheme," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 620-630, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:38:y:2010:i:4:p:620-630
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    1. Herring, Ronald J. & Edwards, Rex M., 1983. "Guaranteeing employment to the rural poor: Social functions and class interests in the employment guarantee scheme in Western India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 11(7), pages 575-592, July.
    2. Ravallion, Martin & Datt, Gaurav & Chaudhuri, Shubham, 1993. "Does Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme Guarantee Employment? Effects of the 1988 Wage Increase," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(2), pages 251-275, January.
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    6. R Gaiha & K Imai, 2005. "A Review of the Employment Guarantee Scheme in India," Economics Discussion Paper Series 0513, Economics, The University of Manchester.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Das, Ritanjan & Dey, Subhasish & Neogi, Ranjita, 2021. "Across the stolen Ponds: The political geography of social welfare in rural eastern India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
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    5. Fleischman, Forrest D., 2014. "Why do Foresters Plant Trees? Testing Theories of Bureaucratic Decision-Making in Central India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-74.
    6. Deval Desai & Michael Woolcock, 2012. "The politics of rule of law systems in developmental states: 'political settlements' as a basis for promoting effective justice institutions for marginalized groups," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-008-12, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    7. de Haan, A., 2011. "Rescuing exclusion from the poverty debate," ISS Working Papers - General Series 22626, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
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