South Asian Report on Pro-Poor Development launched in Colombo

Market glorification has multiplied people's misery in South Asia, paving the way for backward and obscurantist forces to grow and the corporate sector to loot the common resources in the region, according to a new report released recently.

The report was released when the South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) launched its fifth triennial Poverty Report in Colombo at the concluding session of the first South Asian Thinkers Workshop organised by SAAPE, Social Scientists' Association (SSA), Sri Lanka and Centre for Labour Studies (CLS), India.

The SAAPE Poverty Report is titled 'South Asia and the Future of Pro- People Development: The Centrality of Social Justice and Equality'.

"This report is a knowledge document that brings out the commonality of experiences of all south Asian countries. We find declining quality of public institutions and dismantling of public services everywhere. In the absence of state-support, there is farmer suicide, mass migration, exploitation and bonded labour and even statelessness. The report questions the role of state in this context," according to Netra Timsina, Regional Coordinator, SAAPE, in a media release issued by SAAAPE.

While South Asia houses 22 per cent of the world's population, the region, however has only 1.3 per cent of the world's income. The idea that market will correct imbalances through demand and supply has led to the gradual withdrawal of state from publicly providing services like education and health. Depleting investment and state support has resulted in a crisis in agriculture, compromising food security and farmer's livelihood. Growing informalisation of labour added on to the misery of the people, the report said.

"Obsession with 'growth economics' in the region designed under the neo-liberal model has resulted only in intensification of inequality which in the long run has provided fertile grounds towards breeding extreme ideas of religious fundamentalism. The fail- ure of the state in addressing popular discontents around the basic social security concerns has strengthened fundamentalist ideas in all South Asian countries breeding a 'us versus them' narrative. This is at the heart of violence and repression that minorities of all kinds are subjected to," it added.

The report also highlights the rising military expenditure of the state with a proportionate dismantling of social security system. The argument is that unless a 10 per cent annual reduction in defence expenditure is made by the governments of the region, social protection of the masses will become impossible.

It documents the creative use of constitu- tionalism in critiquing neo-liberal economics. "The Poverty report does not negate economic growth- in fact, it argues for growth through justice rather than mere growth with justice," according to Babu Mathew, Professor of Law, National Law School of India, Bangalore. "It consolidates people's creative struggles to reclaim their fundamental rights by using constitution and instruments of law."

The launch of the report was attended by participants of the workshop, drawn from activism, academia and advocacy, from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The report is free to download from http://saape.org/.