Indian economic reform from the bottom up

Madhu Kishwar has a piece on East Asia forum drawing attention to the difficulties facing the 92 % of Indian workers in the unorganized and informal sectors.

 The controls that effect these sectors, she points out stifle dynamism.  These controls includes regulations on agricultural goods (no national market), land (transfer and property rights need clarification), and small-scale merchandise (limited access to national and international markets).

Her point about small scale industry applies to the area of handicrafts where Ubuntu at Work is seeking to help.

She writes:

Similarly, the poverty of India’s traditional artisans and technologists cannot be eradicated by treating them as ‘backward’, while roping them into government jobs as clerks and peons as a panacea. They need access to national and international markets without exploitative intermediaries. In addition, they should be welcome in appropriate institutions of higher learning such as textile engineering, departments of metallurgy and schools of architecture, as well as in institutions for training artists and performers — both as teachers and students — so that they are able to build on their traditional skills.

via Indian economic reform from the bottom up | East Asia Forum.