Basic income in India

Guy Standing, economist, who has been involved in the basic income experiments in India.

The main goal with basic income in India is to reduce the poverty that is widespread in most parts of the country, and the problems that comes with that. This photo, from a street in Kamathipura, a "red light district" in Mumbai, can be seen as an illustration of this poverty.

Basic income in India refers to the debate and practical experiments with basic income in India.

The debate has been fostered by the basic income-project organized by India’s Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) with support from UNICEF, which started 2011. The government has since then also declared that they will implement a national basic income, which began in January 2013.^[1]

The village-projects

In total there are 20 villages in the project. The villagers in eight of these got basic income and the other villagers were control groups. As of September 2012, the number of people who have received basic income through the projects total 6460. These mostly consist of persons from poorer villages, but also include a couple of hundred from Delhi.^[2]

According to the first communication of the pilot projects, positive results were found.^[3] Villages spent more on food and healthcare, children's school performance improved in 68% of families, time spent in school nearly tripled, personal savings tripled, and new business startups doubled.^[4]

References

1. "Will Vote for Rupees". The New York Times.
2. "Basic Income in India Presentation on BIEN Congress 2012 in Munich Germany". YouTube. 4 October 2012.
3. "INDIA: Basic Income Pilot Project Finds Positive Results," Basic Income News, BIEN (22 September 2012).
4. Fernandez, Benjamin (4 May 2013). "Rupees in your pocket". Le Monde diplomatique. Retrieved 5 May 2013.