National Security
Sustainable Welfare – Political Parties’ Policies
Dt: 23/11/12
Sustainable Welfare – Political Parties’ Policies
Dr T.H.Chowdary *
India has been spending increasingly on various types of welfare for the aam aadmi. In 1969 it all started with the stirring and electrifying call, garibhi hatao. The initial shots were the natinalisation of banks and coal mines etc. Priority sectors were defined and nationalised banks and others were set targets for disbursing loans to sections of people who were earlier not getting easy credit.
2. Housing for the poor was undertaken. Public distribution system through which subsidized rice and wheat (food grains) sugar, kerosene, pulses and sometimes even cloth like sarees were also being given. A special category of ration cards with white color were given to the “below poverty line (BPL)” families.
3. Fertilizer ,seeds and other inputs for farmers are given at subsidized rates. Electricity is given either free or at nominal rates to farmers and rural folks. Concessional rates are applied for commuters like students and aged people. Pensions are given to Widows and the old and periodically enhanced. Arogyasree, free schooling and fee reimbursement at the post matriculation stage are introduced. NREG alone is incurring an expenditure of about Rs. 50,000 cr per year. Loans to farmers and other sections are being periodically waived. For self- help groups, for one crore women in Andhra Pradesh pavala vaddi (3%) interest rate loans of Rs. 1 lakh per person were introduced and now they have morphed into interest-free loans. Loans for students amounted to over Rs. 50,000 cr in the last few years. Many are becoming NPAs of
banks. In Andhra Pradesh the total number of Indiramma houses for the poor seem to be working out to nearly 2 cr meaning that over 8 cr out of 8.5 cr population are living in government built houses for the poor. Certain governments are giving TV sets, laptops, bicycles, mangalasuthra, 10g gold, mixi grinders, Rs25,000 for marriage expense and pilgrimage to Jerusalem; for the Haj pilgrimage over Rs. 900 cr were spent in the year 2011-12 and every year this is increasing by about 10%. Besides, in the name of minority welfare, government funds are being allotted for repair & maintenance of Churches &Mosques. To please the majority community, some state governments are subsidizing pilgrimages and teertha yatras.
4. It is estimated that central & state governments are spending Rs. 5lakh cr per year on various welfare schemes and subsidies. Central government is raising loans to the extent of Rs. 5 to 7 lakhs per year ( Rs. 2000 cr per day). The interest payments are the largest single item of expenditure exceeding what is spent upon defense even. The debt of Discoms had gone up from Rs. 41,000cr in2001 to Rs. 1,90,000 cr by 2012.
5. As a result of these increasing expenditures on welfare, investments in infrastructure like high ways, railways, ports, hospitals, educational institutions, airports and sea ports, cold storages, and ware -houses are all neglected. And the worst that is happening to India is inadequate expenditure on defense and internal security with the result that the chiefs of our armed forces have publicly stated that they would not be able to withstand the aggression from the north and much worse if that aggression is supplemented by aggression from the west that is Pakistan. Internal security is another causality. There are more private security guards in the country ( about 50 lakhs) than the police. The CRPF and such paramilitary organisations are also starved of men and funds.
6. The western countries had come to the current levels of welfare over a period of 100 years. Their GDPs had grown and they are the richest counties in the world, members of the OECD. Can India afford the current levels of welfare?
7. In the Peoples Republic of China by adopting the one-child norm they had contained the population growth and therefore they had been able to increase the PCI very rapidly. In the last 10 years alone their PCI increased from $800 to 4000 $. China has now become the second largest economy in the world superseding Japan & Germany and Great Britain, France and Italy. They have built 75,000 kmts of 4 & 6 lane high ways, double the length in US. It has been able to extend its rail lines to the highest city in the world, Lhasa introducing trains with pressurized air and oxygen supply. Marvels of railway lines like Meglev between Pudong (Shanghai) and its airport had been built. Its defense forces are challenging the mighty US. China has lifted the 60% of the BPL people into prosperity. The BPL there is now under 12% compare to India’s 25 %to 35% ( according to various estimates). It is only now that China is giving permission to have a second child, the criterion being their income levels.
8. In India welfare is being extended indiscriminately irrespective of the number of children a family is having . This is leading to the assertion, “it is our right to produce children; it is the duty of the government to feed, cloth educate, house and give employment”. This is unsustainable. Our population is increasing by over 16 mln/year, whereas in no year in the past could we create more than 10 mln jobs.
9. Political parties are competitively promising more and more welfare, to ever more sections, even resorting to community and religion-specific freebies and give-aways. Those in the opposition are promising write-off of loans, and enhancement of all give-aways. The debt burden of the nation, the NPAs of banks number of the “educated” unemployed, unemployable “certified but not qualified” graduates inequality, entitlement-demanding persons…are all increasing. Unemployment an d inequality promote instability and unrest in the country. There will be increasing number of small groups battling for entitlement, more welfare, more reservations and more representation.
10. The Citizens Forum would like the intelligentsia, especially those in political parties to deliberate upon the issues raised in the above paragraphs and request governments and leaders of political parties and the public in general to adopt policies to create wealth more rapidly than it is distributed. (914 words)
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