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The poor state of the Indian state
Updated:
Updated:
February 18, 2021 01:40 IST
The pandemic has revealed its chronic inability and systemic weakness to take care of the poorest citizens
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The pandemic has revealed its chronic inability and systemic weakness to take care of the poorest citizens
Two new books reveal stark weaknesses of the Indian state in serving India’s poorer citizens. The first,
Locking Down the Poor: The Pandemic and India’s Moral Centre by Harsh Mander, records the plight of millions who lost incomes and shelter, and food and medical care too, in a harsh lockdown to create a sanitised cordon for better-off Indians during the pandemic. “Every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it is presently producing”, said Donella Meadows, a doyen of systems thinking. The second,
Are Indiaâs Cities Planning to Be Victims of Climate Change? A Tale From Gujarat
An excerpt from Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope by M. Rajshekhar, published by Westland/Context.
Traffic moves along roads in Ahmedabad, India, March 21, 2020. Photo: Reuters/Amit Dave
Urban20/Jan/2021
The following is an unedited excerpt, published with permission, from Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope by M. Rajshekhar, published by Westland/Context, January 2021.
India’s track record on climate adaptive/mitigative urban planning has been dismal. Most buildings and houses use construction material that absorb heat and drive up cooling costs. Cities have low and decreasing tree cover, and rising hard spaces. As Bangalore found in 2017, even after heavy rains, there is little groundwater recharge. In city after city, lakes, which can recharge groundwater, are being killed through real estate development. Little thought