Social Development Report
For the past several years, social development has acquired a new salience in development thinking. In the immediate post-war period, development was seen mainly in terms of accretion in the material wealth of nations, and was measured in terms of rate of growth in domestic product. Economic growth itself was regarded as a function of capital inputs, both foreign and domestic. The main pursuit of economic policy was to mobilize the resources required for achieving a desired rate of growth. Accelaration in the rate of growth was supposed to take care of both economic and social problems.
There is ample evidence to demonstrate that social development in India has suffered a setback with the introduction of economic reforms as part of the process of liberalization and globalization. The social sectors have been the first target of retrenchment in public expenditure in the largely unsuccessful bid so far to achieve fiscal balance. The state has, as a matter of deliberate policy, started scaling down, if not retreating from, its constitutional responsibility for providing public goods in such crucial areas as education, health, sanitation housing, etc. This responsibility is increasingly being transferred to private operators.
As a result there has been a sharp deterioration in the conditions of the poorest and marginalised, particularly the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, other economically backward communities, and women and children in each of these social groups. The Council for Social Development which has since the mid-60s played a pioneering role in advocacy through research and analysis in the feild of social development, has carried out numerous empirical studies to document these trends and bring out their implications for those directly affected by them. At the same time, the Council has, from time to time tried to present an overall integrated view of the social situation and the social changes taking place in the country.
A modest effort in this direction was the publication on the eve of Copenhagen Social Summit of the book Indian Society Today: Challenges of Equality, Integration and Empowerment. More recently the Council is bringing out a bi-annual publication India: Social Development Report.
India: Social Development Report 2006
India: Social Development Report 2008
India: Social Development Report 2010
Social Development Index