BOOK REVIEW

Ejaz Ghani (ed.). The poor half billion in South Asia:what is holding back lagging regions? USA: OxfordUniversity Press; World Bank. 2010. 416 pages.Hard copy

Manish Kakkar

Published online: 2 April 2011# Springer-Verlag 2011

The India Shining campaign launched by one of the leading national political partiesduring the 2004 general elections was meant to draw attention to the massive stridesmade by the Indian economy but ended up contributing to its defeat. The bravadoexpressed through the campaign discounted or rather mocked all the other in-your-face realities that existed on the ground where poverty, disease, unemployment, andthe chasm between the haves and have nots had never been so deep and uneven.While this scenario was India-specific, the same could be said about other countriesin South Asia where dichotomies are more the norm than the exception. Thisprecisely is the rationale behind “The Poor Half Billion in South Asia: What isHolding Back Lagging Regions?”

Ejaz Ghani, Economic Adviser, South Asia Poverty Reduction and EconomicManagement at the World Bank, has edited a compendium of nine essays whichclosely examine South Asia's sharp and growing contrasts, providing insights into thelinks between economic geography, institutions, and globalization before coming upwith solutions that may seem simplistic at one level but which are the only pragmaticway of addressing the complexities and challenges that drive these economies.

According to Ghani, the number of people living in poverty has actually increasedin South Asia over the last few decades, with the number of those living indebilitating poverty being more than those in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 600 millionpeople live on less than US $1.25 a day; more than 250 million children areundernourished; more than 30 million children do not go to schools; more than one-third adult women are anemic, and the share of female employment in totalemployment continues to be dismal.

This is a vastly different picture as compared to some of the feats made on theurban capitalist side, making it evident that presently, there are two South Asianeconomies–one dynamic, urbanized, and globally integrated, and the other, rural,

Asia Eur J (2011) 8:555–557DOI 10.1007/s10308-011-0294-y

M. Kakkar (*)Public Health Foundation of India, II Floor, PHD House, 4/2 Siri Institutional Area,August Kranti Marg, New Delhi 110016, Indiae-mail: manish.kakkar@phfi.org

impoverished, and lagging–that are co-existing. Economic analysts feel that thissituation cannot persist for long. There has to be some method to the madness, withthe gap between the two opposites shrinking to more manageable levels.

History has shown many times over that growth and development rarely occurevenly across geographic regions. Attempts have to be made to reduce humanmisery, increase migration to growth poles, and reduce spatial disparities. Towardsthis end, the authors ask vital questions such as, can high economic growth co-existwith dismal social outcomes? Should policymakers wait for growth to lift across alllevels or take direct policy interventions to reduce poverty? Will growth ultimatelyreduce poverty or will poverty reduction sparkle growth? It recommends directpolicy interventions for poverty alleviation, viz., larger fiscal transfers to laggingregions for investing in human and physical infrastructure, stimulating agriculture,and facilitating greater human mobility.

The essay on “New Economic Geography and Market Access” examines theevolution of South Asia's economic geography at three spatial scales—in the contextof the global economy; at an individual level, how the six (main) South Asiancountries are faring in the economic sphere; and at a spatial scale of aggregation, bycomparing the development of each country's lagging regions with that of its leadingones. The solution then is for policymakers to invest in people when it comes tolagging regions and to invest in places when it comes to leading regions. For onlyinvestments and improvements in education and health can allow people a chance totake advantage, through movement/mobility/migration of economic developments inleading regions. Also, measures to increase labor mobility will make sense only ifthey enable migration of a well-trained, well-qualified, and effective labor force fromlagging or leading regions.

Other chapters look closely at education policies and outcomes, trade andeconomics, quality of institutions, their role in development impact, and howdecentralization can create greater efficiencies. It makes an important conclusionwhich states that lagging regions cannot make optimal use of these resources simplyby directing financial resources to lagging regions whether through donor aid orgovernment schemes. They have to be accompanied in equal measure by an increasein capacity, accountability, and participation at the local level.

The chapter on migration succinctly identifies main internal migration corridorsand links these to the leading–lagging regions' differences. It tries to overcome thelimitation of scarcity of data on internal migration in most South Asian countries byattempting a fairly balanced analysis on the economic impact of internal migrationon migrants, people left behind in sending regions and natives of receiving regions.It looks at internal migration in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and how povertyimpacts the lives of migrants.

According to the authors, internal migration in South Asia is quite low. In the threecountries analyzed, inter-state migration rarely constitutes more than 6% of that state'spopulation, though the same is not true of countries like China, where migration-lagging regions are part of the overall development process. Reasons for this couldbe social, cultural, and policy related. In the case of India, the author reasoned, itcould be cultural barriers as also policy-induced restrictions such as labor marketrestrictions and state-specific social welfare programs. According to the authors, thedeterminants of migration and welfare impacts of internal migration in other

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countries in the region would be similar to those observed in India. Increased socialtension, congestion in urban areas, and strained public services in receiving regionsas well as rapid draining of human capital in sending regions have historically beenpresented as evidence proving the harmful consequences of internal migration.

Including a section on “Stimulating Agricultural Growth” was relevant to theoverall theme of the book. Agriculture, by stimulating asset position of the ruralpoor, holds the key to providing some relief in poverty, unemployment, andunproductive migration patterns. As cities and urban centers get choked, thesecountries will have to look at ways of rebuilding social capital and networkingthrough farmers' associations, self-help groups, water user groups, and other income-generating ways that can transform the poor and marginalized farmers into moreorganized economic entities. Using technology, specifically mobile phones andinternet access to enhance job creation and growth, will bring a new dimension todevelopment as we see it today.

Combining quantitative data with analytical rigor, the book provides innovativeshort-term and long-term policy solutions to overcome limits to growth and escapepoverty traps. Documenting challenges of poverty eradication and presenting a rangeof solutions, spanning fiscal policy, social service delivery, and infrastructure, it laysemphasis on sub-regional aspects of poverty within each country and thedisappointing effects of globalization on improving the lot of people in backwardsub-regions. The book is definitely a recommended read for development scholars,the policy community, media, NGOs, and development agencies.

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