Salimah Samji

This paper documents the Andhra Pradesh experience of institutionalizing social audits into the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, and uses it to analyse the social audit process. It draws on empirical work aimed at measuring the effectiveness of social audits conducted in Andhra Pradesh between March and December 2007.

Our earlier wage employment programmes failed due to the common problems of ineffective targeting, leakages and poor quality asset creation, etc. Hence, while developing rules and guidelines for implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005, more attention should be paid to the lessons we have learnt from past experiences. Read more »

This paper aims to develop an analytical framework within which to understand the status of health care in India. Drawing on a model of public sector accountability, it argues that weak voice and low accountability between public sector employees and citizens in the health care sector is the key binding constraint to effective delivery.

India is currently witness to two trends that have the potential to significantly improve the health of its people. The first is the growing recognition that the system of public delivery of health services is in crisis. And the second is India’s bold efforts to strengthen the voice of the rural poor through decentralization to local governments.This paper argues that these two ostensibly separate trends can converge to generate real reform in the health sector in India through the potential for increased accountability that local governments can provide. Read more »