Book Review - The Broken Ladder

India is an economic bright spot and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. India is also one of the most unequal economies. One third of world's poor live in India. It produces talents who can compete head to head with the talents anywhere in the world. At the same time Indian schools and colleges produce graduates who are unemployable due to poor quality of education. India is attracting people from far away countries for health care at the same time Indians in large number do not get basic health care facility. The expensive health care is single major factor which pushes people down the poverty line. Indian villages especially villages beyond 5 KM of district head quarters lack basic infrastructure very badly. The public schooling system has improved but the quality of education remains a challenge. These contradictions make India a land of paradoxes.

Anirudh Krishna, in his book ‘The Broken Ladder’ diagnoses the causes and effects of economic disparity and poverty in India.

Anirudh Krishna is Edgar T. Thompson professor of public policy and professor of political science at Duke University, USA. Before taking up career in academic and research, Anirudh Krishna worked in Indian Administrative Service for fifteen years. He has made home in central India where he lives for sometime every year. He also visits villages and slums across the country to mine primary data and gather firsthand experience of the economic condition of people living in countryside. The book 'The Broken Ladder' is result of survey and research done at ground level. It has bottom-up approach which the author calls worm's eye view rather than bird's eye view.

The very title of the book sets the tone and tenor. A vast majority missed the fast growing economic bandwagon and for them the ladder to move up the economic hierarchy appears broken. With judicious use of economic data, the author has presented the real picture of economy.

In the chapter ‘Dollar economy and Rupee economy’, the author delineates two different faces of Indian economy. The world renowned brand of car is running parallel to the bullock cart on Indian roads. The people are living in abject condition in slums besides the skyscrapers of metropolis. There is a segment which has advanced and has become part of dollar economy where as a majority remains languishing in Rupee economy.

There has been big push in educational infrastructure creation in rural areas still those who are educated hardly get any advantage. "The prospect of moving down in life seems more plausible than moving up". In the chapter on preventing future poverty, the author exhorts policy makers to relook at the approach on poverty alleviation and prevention. "Growth is not ready antidote to problems of vulnerability and broken ladder". A separate policy is needed for poverty reduction, the author suggests. "Improving governance in public (health) system and strengthening regulation in private (health) system is critical". India is not reaping the benefits of demographic dividend. "the height to which one rises depends crucially upon one's starting point”. The opportunity is not widely disbursed or easily available. The broken ladder does not only harm the affected individual rather it limits the achievement of entire society.

Author recommends the overhauling of administrative machinery to make state better in dealing with the concerns of ordinary citizens. The public administration of future need to be an instrument for brightest and hard working achieve stellar careers. To make democracy real one, its protection, benefits and opportunities must reach at doorsteps.The author suggests macro strategy to grow the national economy and a micro strategy for the promotion of individual development.

A plethora of work has been done on poverty in India but here is a compassionate, well researched book with balanced view. This book is useful for researchers, policy makers, teachers, students and for anyone who is interested in economic disparity and poverty in India.