By Barnes Mawrie
Someone has rightly said that if all the central schemes for the poor were to be justly implemented in India, there would not be a single hungry person in this populous country. We can make an endless list of central schemes meant for the aam admi in our country from health care to daily sustenance. I may vouch that nowhere in the world you will find so many schemes available for the benefit of the poor. For this, India should be lauded as a pro-poor nation. However, the tragedy is that the central aids do not quite reach the rightful beneficiaries. Instead, these central schemes are being channelized to the rich men’s coffers who have an insatiable greed for money.
Perhaps the most popular central schemes implemented are the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (self employment such as organization of the poor into self help groups, training, credit, technology, infrastructure and marketing), Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojna, (building of the rural infrastructure) Indira Aawas Yojana, (providing shelter to the poor below poverty line) and also the Health Smart Card for BPL families, the pension for the aged and the widows, the scheduled caste welfare schemes under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the welfare schemes for Scheduled Tribes under the Ministry for Tribal Welfare etc. Besides these you have the BPL rice, mid-day meals for school children, ration cards and so on and so forth. How come then that our poor people are still reeling in misery and in some places children have died of malnutrition? The reasons for this is not difficult to see. First of all, majority of the Indian rural population is illiterate and most of them do not even have basic education. In such a situation, how do we expect them to know about all these central schemes? Moreover, the district authorities prefer not to share information with these poor people. Many poor farmers are not even aware of agricultural subsidies available to them. In most cases, the corrupt district officials eat up the money and prepare ghost projects which are sent to the central ministries. Keeping the poor people ignorant about such central benefits has become a tactic for self enrichment of those in power. In fact, in my experience I found that villagers are surprised at the existence of such schemes.
Secondly, there are cases of broad daylight and shameless exploitation of poor people’s projects. Even the rangbah-shnong (headmen) have fallen into the same temptation of “getting rich fast”. I have come to know that in some villages the NREGS scheme has been marred with corrupt practices. There are headmen who force villagers to sign the work register without giving them work and consequently no pay while the register shows that the scheme has been implemented and the money has been utilized. There are villages where people have been given only a few days of work instead of the stipulated 100 days. So the rest of the money goes into someone else’s pocket. But there are villages where this scheme has been well implemented. In such places we see fast development of the villages and an appreciable amount of prosperity of the villagers. In my opinion the NREGS scheme can be a boon or a bane depending on the honesty of the village authorities. Unfortunately, in many cases it has led to quarrels, hostility and division within villages. Some corrupt headmen have even gone to the extent of expelling their own village members.
Even the distribution of Health Smart Cards has been marred by corruption. There are many well to do families who get such cards because they are friends or relatives of those in authority while the deserving poor people are deprived of their rights. Ration cards too are often allotted to rich families rather than to BPL families. Thirdly, rules have been flouted openly and corruption has been practiced shamelessly while all the time those in authority remain indifferent to such issues. The plight of the poor remains ignored and unattended. Our representatives remain callous to the poor man’s complaints. At election time they promise heaven and earth but after being elected they conveniently forget all their promises. Many of those in authority care a hoot for the poor section of society. They are in office only to exploit whatever benefit is there. Lastly, the nitty-gritty of bureaucracy in India is not friendly towards the poor. The poor and ignorant are often left in the docks not knowing what they should do or where they should go. Many times for procuring a scheme a poor villager may have to come as many as ten times to the block office, thereby costing him time and money. Some callous officers even take pleasure in persecuting the simple public either by being absent from office or asking people to come on other days. These are the things that keep the poor people away from such socio-economic benefits sanctioned by the central government. Thus finally, they become easy money for those in authority who siphon off such benefits to their own pockets. Since the whole system is corrupt, the perpetrators of such corrupt practices go scot free and they are easily absolved of their crimes. When will the government exercise its political will and ensure that the aam admi projects reach the poor people? When will justice be meted out to those guilty of robbing away the poor man’s rights?