'But what I have tried to do is to re-embed the market mechanism in the social, ethical and environmental consciousness. I have tried to probe what is it about the market that is free and free for whom?'

The writer said she recently visited Mahila Seva Bazaar, a Sunday market for women near Ajmere Gate in the capital.

'This market is under pressure from the government to relocate despite the fact that we work in a market economy. But the freedom of opportunities is not readily available, it's an ongoing tussle,' she averred.

Bakshi feels that in a free market, 'we need freedom of conversation between the buyer and seller through which prices can be determined to free it from controls like government whips'.

'Bazaars are all about haggling. Unless we begin the conversation, we cannot learn about services that the market has to offer.'

Arbitrary controls are steering the market in a particular way, Bakshi says.

'In a lot of situations, the government acts in an arbitrary manner while setting in motion a project and it results in displacement. The price for development is always paid by the poorest section of society,' she said.

Bakshi said she was 'on the fringes' of the Narmada movement, and added: 'Survival and displacement were for the people at the bottom of the ladder. We are living in an economic market system that's not paying the bill.'

The writer feels the 'market is a human construct'.

'We can make it and shape it in any way. It is a photosynthesis of opportunities, possibilities, freedom and responsibility,' she said.

The writer, a Homi Bhabha Fellow, is planning to write on 'what it will take to have more economic democracy in the country'.

Bakshi's earlier books include the 'The Long Haul: The Bombay Textile Workers Strike'; 'The Dispute over Swami Vivekananda's Legacy', 'Bapu Kuti: Journeys in Rediscovery of Gandhi' and 'An Economics for Well-Being'.

(Madhusree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)