| Summary: | Orissa has gradually become India's poorest state, in terms of proportion of people living below the poverty line, and with much slower improvements in human development indicators. These disparities do not exist because of a lack of effort to address them; both the regional and group disparities have featured significantly on the policy agenda, with a large number of programs in existence, and significant sums of money allocated for the purpose. Often, these programs are the same across India, and a key question is why they work better in some places than in others. This paper suggests that the lack of performance is related to a lack of accountability within the administrative system, and that the very disparities that the policies try to address permeate the system of delivery responsible for them. Regional inequality is unlikely to be addressed successfully unless a range of economic, political and socio-cultural conditions are met, including: a challenge of the political and socio-cultural dominance of the elite; mobilization and creation of effective voice among marginalized groups; and progressive reform of the institutions that determine access to livelihood resources.
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