The Indian Agriculture Today features an interview with Dr. V. Kurian Baby. He talks about IRC and its role in the water and sanitation sector in India.
Published on: 27/02/2014
His analysis of the current status of the water sector in India is voiced in strong statements:
“Water governance in India is purposive designed chaos perpetrated by an intricate play of perverse incentives, bounty hunting and short run rationality. Indian water sector is characterized by millions of informal atomistic operators. Agricultural practices are set by choices of millions of farmers, guided by regressive and distortive subsidies. We need adaptive legislations recognising the dominant role of political economy”.
In order to get out of this situation the IRC approach of seeing water and sanitation as basic human rights and as key drivers of sustainable economic growth needs to be adopted. With good policies in place, by making informed choices and having large programmes with huge investments, India can achieve a level of service at par with developed countries.
