A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India

Over the last twenty years, India has enacted legislation to turn crucial goals such as food security, primary education, and even employment into legal rights conferred on every citizen. The idea is to make governments at all levels accountable – even to citizens with little political or financial clout. But enacting laws is one thing and implementing them through an imperfect institutional structure is another. A Human Rights Based Approach to Development in India examines a diverse range of human development issues over a period of rapid economic growth in India. Demonstrating why institutional and economic development are synonymous, the essays in this volume detail the many obstacles that may hinder development in a poor country and show how a government that cannot deliver what it promises may lose credibility. In addition, the domestic policies required to fulfill such promises may run counter to the country’s treaty obligations at the World Trade Organization or under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. The contributors ultimately ask to what extent it is possible to bring about development by making it a legal right and whether India’s right to develop is truly at odds with its commitment to international agreements.