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In the past few years, India has given its citizens four important socio-economic rights-the right to information, the right to employment, forest rights, and the right to education. These forward-looking rights put social justice at the core of India's developmental policies. This book comprehensively analyses these rights and their implementation in order to understand if they have really reached the poor and excluded, who were supposed to be their primary beneficiaries. The author demonstrates that due to legislative and institutional inadequacies most of the poor have been left out. The book highlights the need for appropriate laws, adequate resources, and an institutional infrastructure with proper political instrumentalities to bridge the gap between these rights and their rightful beneficiaries. It offers a rights-based framework to ensure that the goals of inclusive growth and social justice are attained. Salient Features An important contribution to the current national debate on socio-economic rights. Analyses why important rights have failed to benefit the poor. Suggests ways in which the gap between these rights and the poor can be adequately bridged. Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements Introduction: An Approach to Rights 1. The Rights Discourse 2. Right to Information Act, 2005 3. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 4. Forest Rights Act, 2006 5. Right to Education Act, 2009 Conclusion: What Needs to Be Done? Bibliography Index