A broken lantern, a creaky cot, some aluminum utensils?there?s not much Ramakant Musahar has in the name of assets. Still, his prized possessions include a red BPL card, a NREGA card and a Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana card. The first one entitles him to 25 kg rice, 10 kg wheat and two kg of sugar a month?barely enough to feed his wife and five children. The second entitles his family to 100 days of employment in a year. And the third entitles him to he ?doesn?t know what, maybe free treatment at a sarkari hospital?. A resident of Dokhara village in Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, Ramakant hasn?t got any work under NREGA this year. He hasn?t received any baithaki (unemployment allowance) either. ?The pradhan says why will the government pay you if you don?t work.? While Ramakant and rest of the 135 Musahar households in the village have a genuine reason to complain, they reluctantly admit how they are better off today than they were five years back. That?s when Nagina, one of the Musahars from the village, accidentally died in front of the police station in nearby Fazilnagar block while begging. The hunger death created a huge uproar. Benefits started to pour in for the Musahars of Dokhara…Antyodaya cards became functional and a grant from Indira Awas Yojana came their way. Still, most Musahars still live in thatched huts. There?s no pucca road leading up to the village and the less said about power cuts the better. But Nagina?s wife Prabhavati has since become sort of a community leader, representing her tribe at dharnas at the block and district level.
Ironically, while all the Musahars in Dokhara village have red BPL cards, the Musahars in Gurmiya Maphi village a few km away have white BPL cards. They haven?t got Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna cards either. And while the Musahar households in the former village get their full share of 35 kg grain each month, the latter get only 30 kg, five kg less than what they are entitled to and also what?s wrongly entered in the cards. However, they dare not rebel for the fear of losing whatever little they are getting right now. ?The kotedar keeps the rest of the ration…yes, the pradhan also knows about it,? says Bhikari Musahar, a resident of Gurmiya Maphi. Bhikari has already exhausted his share of last month?s ration and has only a couple of dry rotis to survive through the day. ?I don?t know about tomorrow,? he says.
Discontentment reflects from each voice. Suddhu Musahar, who got Rs 25,000 under the Indira Awas Yojana, ?had to pay Rs 5,000 as bribe to the secretary and the pradhan?. With barely any work under NREGA, he sent his 12-year-old son to work in a sari factory in Gujarat a year back. Child labour is a concept alien to him; he?d rather work out the mathematics of feeding his three other children.
Elsewhere in Kushinagar, Chanmati from Loha Patti village in Dudahi block has been waiting to get her old-age pension, a measly Rs 300 per month. ?The pradhan promised that I?ll get the money if I vote for him. It?s been years. I have little hope left now.? Chanmati is just another victim of the vote bank politics centering around the policies.
It?s an issue that has social scientists concerned. ?If you have to work in a democratic set-up, you can?t but focus on the aam aadmi. Though India is becoming rich, registering over 9% growth rate, that?s not bringing real change at the grassroots; people are not getting employment. Up to 60% of the people are either just below the poverty line or just above it and the government realises it,? says sociologist Surinder Jodhka from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He further explains how liberalisation created problems at the local level and led to worries of unrest. Populist policies followed. ?However, studies show that while these policies have been useful, they haven?t really bought a structural change in villages. Rather, a lot of the change that we witness can be attributed to the Green Revolution,? he adds.
But there seems to be no dearth of policies targeting the rural populace. Apart from UPA?s flagship programme NREGA, in 2005 came the Bharat Nirman agenda with water supply, housing, telecommunication, roads, electrification and irrigation in its purview. The government intended it to be a ?time-bound business plan for action in rural infrastructure? to be completed by 2009. However, it has just entered the second phase and many targets are yet to be achieved. In 2008 rolled out the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, targeting people living below the poverty line. And, of course, there is the National Social Assistance Programme that includes old-age pension, widow pension, disability pension and National Family Benefit Scheme. Add to the list Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna and the Indira Awas Yojana!
Lack of funds isn?t a problem either. In 2009-10, of the total plan allocation, the rural development ministry was allotted Rs 74,270 crore. It amounts to 22.84% of total plan allocation and puts the ministry at first rank among all the ministries. Finance and HRD are second and third, respectively. ?We have plenty of funds but there is lack of manpower. In the 14 blocks under me there are vacancies for five programme officers under NREGA. Yes, there have been complaints of corruption as well and we have lodged about 15 FIRs against pradhans and secretaries,? says VSV Ranga Rao, DM, Kushinagar. For now, Ranga Rao is counting on the UP Mukhyamantri Mahamaya Garib Arthik Madad Yojna to cover those left out of the entitlement net.
The biggest hurdle to be overcome, feels Renana Jhabvala of SEWA, are the ?clogged pipes? for delivery of benefits. ?A political economy has developed around the benefit system. It is now an accepted fact that every government scheme will be diverted for the benefit of officials, politicians and contractors. As more money is poured down this system, more goes into their hands. The most relevant question is how to bypass these pipes or how to unclog them,? asks Jhabvala.
She also points out at the problem of ?targeting?. ?The BPL card system makes an attempt to target the poor, but many studies have shown this targeting is unsuccessful. One problem is the identification and distribution of cards and the second is channeling benefits to card-holders. Many schemes should and can be universal.? Development economist Jean Dreze suggests a quasi-universal approach, followed by application of simple inclusion and exclusion criteria to arrive at a social assistance base.
It?s a complex web. ?There is lack of awareness amongst the beneficiaries, an element crucial to a policy?s success. Moreover, accountability needs to be fixed at all levels. For instance, there are multiple complaints in the implementation of NREGA and though social audits are taking place, they?re just for namesake,? says Shylashri Shankar of Centre for Policy Research, Delhi.
Meanwhile, for Ramakant and Bhikari and thousands like them, it?s a long wait.