How can power discourses be changed? Contrasting the ‘daughter deficit’ policy of the Delhi government with Gandhi and King's transformational reframing

Abstract

Social policy impact is partly determined by how policy is articulated and advocated, including which values are highlighted and how. In this paper, we examine the influence of policy framing and reframing on outcomes, with particular reference to the policies of the Delhi state government in India that target the practices of female feticide, infanticide and neglect that underlie the ‘daughter deficit’. Using Snow and Benford's categories for understanding reframing processes, the paper outlines and applies a ‘model’ of reframing disputed issues derived from looking at two famous campaigns – Gandhi's 1930 Salt March in the struggle for Indian freedom from British rule and the African-American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that ‘carrot and stick’ policy measures, such as financial incentives and legal prohibitions, to counteract the ‘daughter deficit’ must be complemented by well crafted discursive interventions.

Keywords:

• policy framing and re-framing
• policy tools
• ‘daughter deficit’ in India
• Gandhi Salt March
• Martin Luther King

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for helpful comments on one or other earlier version from two anonymous referees, Shanti George, Ravinder Kaur, Jos Mooij and especially Sharada Srinivasan, and participants in a session at the 4^th International Conference on Interpretive Policy Analysis (University of Kassel, June 2009). The usual disclaimer applies.

Notes

1. See, for example, Clegg (1998) on the concept of ‘discursive power’, power through discourse, derived from Foucault (originally stated in his Surveiller et Punir (1975)).

2. The definition Benson and Snow use a page earlier (p. 623) emphasizes selection amongst existing beliefs and experiences, the aspect that we underlined in the earlier discussion.

3. http://des.delhigovt.nic.in/Census2001/delhiglance.htm [Accessed 20 October 2009].

4. In addition, the Tamil Nadu program sends a strong message in the way its cash incentives scheme is formulated: only poor families who have only daughters and no son are eligible. Tamil Nadu is notable too for a state scheme for pensions for the elderly poor. We thank Sharada Srinivasan for these points. See also Srinivasan and Bedi (2008) for more detailed analysis of daughter elimination in Tamil Nadu, disaggregated by locality.

5. http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/speeches/speeches-of-winston-churchill/105-our-duty-in-india [Accessed 20 October 2009].

6. http://english.emory.edu/Bahri/Dandi.html [Accessed 2 June 2009].

7. http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html [Accessed 2 June 2009].

8. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/july-dec03/march_08–28.html [Accessed 2 June 2009].

9. www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/index.htm [Accessed 21 October 2009].