Food and poverty : India's half won battle

After forty years of independence, India is free from the danger of devastating famines and is no longer at the mercy of grain im ports. Yet, the battle is only half over: there still remains the battle against poverty. It is this battle that Gilbert Etienne focuses on in his absorbing study.

This book is the outcome of repeated sur veys of selected areas over a period of time in excess of two decades. The author has chosen three broad categories of regions for this study which represent, respectively, ad vanced areas; poor but potentially rich areas; and areas that face severe physical con straints. While Prof Etienne focuses primar ily on economic growth and its impact on the rural poor, he also utilises the broader framework of socio-political and techno economic factors. He has relied primarily on interviews with local landless workers, land owners and district and block officials. From field studies the author moves on to an analysis of how the villages and districts he visited fit into the all-India perspective. Fi nally, he looks at the future: at the next steps in rural development, the major constraints, and the factors that can accelerate the fight. against poverty.

Prof Etienne argues that while poverty is retreating in progressive areas, the trend is less significant in the more sluggish regions of the country. Efforts to remove poverty, create more employment and increase food production can only succeed with greater ef ficiency in overall planning and manage ment of the economy. Having visited the same areas - and often the same families - repeatedly over time, Prof Etienne provides an informative, in teresting and authentic account of what is happening at the grass roots level: an analysis that will be an invaluable addition to the literature on the development process in India.