Paper short abstract:

The paper presents a review of social protection programs in India. It discusses their emergence, changing trends and concludes with emphasizing on need of paradigm shift in nature and functioning of social protection programs to address long term vulnerabilities.

Paper long abstract:

The paper presents a comprehensive analysis of nature of social protection programs in India aimed at poverty reduction. Social protection is generally understood as an umbrella term for a range of policies and programs that address risk and vulnerability among poor and near-poor households. However, a strand of researchers has challenged the capacities and functions of social protection based on the arguments of affordability, growth and equity. It is well known that social protection programs have a binding budget hence, low income countries and their capacity of delivering effective social protection to their vulnerable citizens at affordable cost is an alarming issue which further affects their ability to achieve the millennium development goals. In Indian context, social protection programs remain one of the principle components of state welfare policy however, merely provide rudimentary underpinning of a welfare state. The welfare state policy suffers from uneven focus on social protection wherein public services languish. Despite dedicated budgets for social protection programs, the development challenges persist. The paper outlines the structure of social protection in India, discussing their emergence, changing trends and concludes with emphasizing on need of paradigm shift in nature and functioning of social protection programs to address long term vulnerabilities.