Basic Income

<i>This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com.</i><br/><br/>Would it be possible to provide people with a basic income as a right? The idea has a long history. This book draws on two pilot schemes conducted in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh in which thousands of men women and children were provided with an unconditional monthly cash payment. In a context in which the Indian government at national and state levels spends a vast amount on subsidies and selective schemes that are chronically expensive inefficient inequitable and subject to extensive corruption there is scope for switching at least some of the spending to a modest basic income. This book explores what would be likely to happen if this were done.<br/><br/>The book draws on a series of evaluation surveys conducted over the course of the eighteen months in which the main pilot was in operation supplemented with detailed case studies of individuals and families. It looks at the impact on health and nutrition on schooling on economic activity women's agency and the welfare of those with disabilities.<br/><br/>Above all the book considers whether or not a basic income could be transformative in not only improving individual and family welfare but in promoting economic growth and development as well as having an emancipatory effect for people long mired in conditions of poverty and economic insecurity.