Events & Issues

New Delhi, 10 June 2009

Aam Aadmi’s Wish List

CHANGE POLITICAL MINDSET

By Dr. MM Kapur

The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is busy consulting all sectors of the     economy to obtain their views and suggestions before he presents the Budget on 3 July. Needless to say, the aam aadmi too should be an integral part of this inclusive consultation to complete the exercise.

I have been emboldened to write this wish list on behalf of an aam aadmi in response to the repeated statements of the new UPA Government that their objectives were to focus all action and programmes on the aam aadmi.

The aam aadmi who has lived (if you can call it that) in this country for as long as recorded history, is either landless, belongs to the SC-ST or is unemployed. If he is employed it is in the unorganized sector, with each sector holding about 30 crore poor. Till date, neither has he been reached nor has his “garibi” been removed.

Further, an aam aadmi who is working as a labourer is listed as living Below the Poverty Line (BPL). In the Central Government’s definition of BPL the aam aadmi is earning Rs.300pm or Rs.10 a day. Whereas the global definition of a BPL is US$1.25 a day or Rs.55 a day.

According to estimates there are over 456 million BPL people.  Worse, their below the poverty line earning will neither buy the minimum recommended calories (at today’s prices) of food. Resulting in the poor being priced out of their human right of access to food.

Coupled with the recent rise in food prices, I felt I had misread the slogan of garibi hatao and the new slogan was now “garib ko hatao” who continue to be without access to food, in this birth-land of Gautam Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi.

This brings me to my first wish for survival. Food should be made available at affordable prices to the aam aadmi. But this requires an immediate upgrade of the public distribution system (PDS) to make it efficient, free of pilferage, and a well-stocked delivery system.

Sixty two years is a long time to construct and perfect a system that services nearly 50 per cent of the population. The Government must also keep inflation in check along with keeping prices of food items low. Remember, the poor do not live by calories alone. He needs some dal and vegetable, milk too becomes desirable if he has children. Clearly, all these items need to be a part of the PDS service.

The Supreme Court has held and the poor feel that there is a greater dignity to life if the food we eat is earned through manual labour. This necessitates the creation of jobs which should be in sectors where major inputs are required for the growth of the Indian economy.

Two important areas are infrastructure (i.e. roads, waterways and communication) and the energy sector. These areas would help create jobs and earnings in rural and urban locations. Along with this health care too needs most urgent imperatives since clean air, water and food are expensive, and care of the negatively impacted people is an immediate need.

True, the infrastructure is already in place. There are 22,000 Primary Health Centres and 4400 district hospitals. But they need staffing, upgradation of supplies and link-ups with district hospital and medical school hospitals for consultation and advanced care when required. This would make public sector care accessible, cost effective and equitable. Also, if the public healthcare system has computer records it would be able to provide vital data on disease prevalence and aid planners.

Add to this, the fact that reservation in education has become a matter of debate reveals our shortage in this important field. An expansion of our vocational and higher education fields would remove the need for reservation and reintroduce competitiveness in education. Not only that. It would give a fill-up to the economy and insure the future of all coming generation.

Besides, security of life and the property of the citizen have to be delivered through our internal and external security system. The security agencies need a change in mindset and an overhaul from its current disaster management module of acting post an incident, to a new disaster prevention objective based on authentic intelligence and quick counter terror units.

Water is an element of life. Our lack of water conservation and water harvesting is making life both urban and rural difficult. We need to urgently implement schemes for ground water recharging (lakes and ponds) and linking of rivers to tide over lean periods. The final objective being the provision of safe drinking water, for all.

There should be rigid adherence to the reduction in carbon footprint and promotion of sustainable development goals which would cut environmental pollution and provide clean air. The growth goals should have environment goals embedded in the objectives of all projects.

Additionally, a major thrust is needed vis-à-vis rural infrastructure building to improve surface connectivity of the local community. Other than a community centre, communication services, including power, broadband telecommunication, for use of the community for human development is required wherein these facilities could be used for market information and access. This would go a long way in connecting the aam aadmi to the realities of the rest of India.

Importantly, the ‘removal of poverty’ has immense political value. It provides us with slogans and a gullible voting ‘daan’. The socially sensitive are now aware of how painful and debilitating the state of poverty can be that it allows so many to exit in silence. Poverty need never be politicized. It must be addressed, irrespective of caste or religion. It must be fed, nurtured and monitored to confirm the success of our endervours.

We need to remove all names and link our poverty alleviation programmes. India has always been known for its anonymous philanthropy. Thus we should not create new indebtedness in provisions of what is the birthright of every human being.

In sum, the need of the hour is a change in mindset of our leaders and political parties without which none of the above wish list would be achieved. Our leaders need to think in terms of bipartisan national goals instead of short-term electoral compulsions. Given the platform of bipartisan national imperatives would make our goal of ‘garibi hatao’ easily reachable within the lifetime of the aam aadmi. ---- INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)