Basic Income Projects in India

In 2011 two pilot projects have been launched in India. The first was initiated by an association of self-employed women (SEWA), a well-known trade union for women who have a low income from their own labour or small businesses. The project was supported by UNICEF and was applied to 12 months. In eight villages in the state Madhya Pradesh[1] all adults were paid an unconditional payment of 200 rupees[2] (about 3.75 USD or 2.80 EUR) and all children under 14 years with a payment of 100 rupees a month (Standing, et al., 2015). These payments accounted for about 40% of the subsistence level.

The second pilot project is supported by the government in Delhi. Households get the option to continue to receive food rations under an existing scheme or instead a monthly transfer.

While the results of the government project are not yet published the preliminary results (SEWA, 2014) of the SEWA project appear to be very encouraging and quite similar to the experiences in Namibia: the food security situation improved, as did the health care situation, school attendance rates increased, investment in local infrastructure (water supply, road maintenance, better living conditions) increased and an increased activity of small enterprises was noticed. There was a 20% reduction in child wage-labour in the BI villages while nearly 21% of BI recipient households in the general pilot reported an increase in income-earning work or production (SEWA, 2014) (Shrinivasan, 2013).

[1] Madhya Pradesh is a state in central India. Although it has the largest reserves of diamond and copper in India it is one of the least developed states being lowest-ranked on the India State Hunger Index.