Women Empowerment and Poverty Removal AT ONCE
We can do it
The ultimate objective of all our reforms and schemes for infrastructure, agriculture and make in India etc is that the person standing last in the queue should be able to live a life of self respect and financial sustainability. With all our enthusiasm and zeal I am sure that the day will come when we can see this happening. But the question is how far the day is? It will eventually happen when the benefits of all our schemes and reforms trickle down to that last person. It may take ten years or twenty years or much more. Actually it will take infinite time to benefit 100% people. Even if we target 95% coverage, it may take decades despite our best efforts. So what is the alternative? Fortunately there is one.
Start paying cash Rs 1000/- per month to every adult woman in the country through her bank account irrespective whether they belong to north south east or west of India.
It may look absurd only because it has not been done in the world before. But every good thing has to be done once for the first time. This is similar to the unemployment allowance in many developed countries. This will provide sustainability to masses while not making any body rich. This was not possible in the past but has become possible now because of the proliferation of AADHAR and a healthy revenue collection. In fact we should be asking the reverse question, that why this is not being done when it is now possible to transfer direct benefit cash in the bank accounts of poor people.
Is it very costly? Yes. But looking into the benefits, it is much more than worth bearing the cost. There are nearly 35 crore adult women in the country. Thus the scheme will cost 35000 cr a month which comes to 420000 crore a year. Out of a total annual budget of nearly 21 lakh crores (and rising) of govt of India, this will make nearly 20%. So is it worth spending so much on this scheme at the cost of many other schemes? Yes, looking into the benefits, it is much more than worth. It meets the ultimate objective of all the budget schemes in one go.
But before we look into the benefits, let us ask, why recommend only women, not men? It is simple. When the money is given to men it may be spent on family or wine or gambling or many such avenues. However when it is given to the women of the house, it is sure that the money is going to be spent on family, particularly the children. Adult women are recommended straightaway instead of discriminating as married or single or widow or rich or poor etc so as to simplify the process based on aadhar card data. In case of women not yet having the responsibility of children, the money will help boost their status in the society. While unmarried ones will get better proposals for marriage, widows, separated and single women will be able to live with dignity. It is also not recommended to distinguish them based on their social status or income. Giving it to only poor adult women may reduce the number marginally but it will create many implementation issues and may ultimately lead to failure of the scheme. Voluntary giving up of the allowance may however be allowed which can be availed by well to do and confident women. (In his article in TOI sometime back professor of economics at university of California Berkeley Dr Pranab Bardhan recommended UBI i.e. Universal Basic Income, which eventually means paying a monthly sum similar to the above to all the people of India. However that is neither possible because of very high cost nor it will be as useful as the proposed scheme)
Following are the anticipated benefits of the scheme:
- Poverty removal:
This will be achieved in one shot as the income of all the households will now be at least Rs 1000 per month. If there are two adult women in the household this income will become Rs 2000 per month over and above their own income. Thus most of the population will become above the poverty line, which is Rs 447/- per capita per month (The Hindu dated 18th Aug 2016). (At present nearly 21% of Indian population is below poverty line which is only slightly better than Pakistan which is at 29% and Bangladesh which is at 31%).
- Women Empowerment:
Despite best of intentions and efforts, the world has not been able to give the women their pride of place in the society since eternity. This assured income of women will provide them the honor that they deserve. Girl child will become the preferred child. No need of beti bachao programs any more. It may also help in reducing dowry system and hence minimize related problems like dowry deaths etc.
- Malnutrition:
Malnutrition among poor children is a big problem. Presently in India nearly 36% children suffer from malnutrition which is the highest in the world. With money in the hands of mothers this problem will get reduced drastically, leading to a much healthier India. The next generation will be healthier and thus more productive. Health expenditure will also reduce.
- Education:
Well off mothers will take better care of the education of their children. Also it may be made mandatory to educate the girl child who is going to receive the allowance as an eligibility criterion.
- Hygiene:
With better income better hygiene will prevail, leading to improved health of the people.
- Missing Children:
According to CRY report posted by Clara Fernandez on 24.05.2016, nearly 180 children go missing in India every day. The number of untraced children in the year 2015 alone was 62988 according to the data of ministry of home affairs. These children are subjected to heinous crimes. When mothers have some money, they may not go to work leaving the children unattended, reducing the risk of child abduction or lost children. This I think will be the biggest service to the humanity and the country. Incidentally it will also reduce crime because many of these abducted children are the ones who are trained to become hard core criminals.
- Reduction in unemployment:
Since many women may opt out of employment to look after their children as they would have some regular income without earning it by working themselves. Those many jobs will be available to men.
- Reduction in child laborers:
According to a campaign against child labor (CAC) study, India has 1,26,66,377 child labors at present (May 2016). Most of the children are engaged in jobs because of poor financial condition of the family. With a reasonable assured income, parents would be much less likely to allow their children for such jobs.
- First in the world:
This will be the first this kind of effort in the world. It will boost up India’s image as a feminist and welfare state, which will fetch easy assistance from World Bank and charitable institutions of the world.
- Political Advantage:
It goes without saying that such a huge direct benefit scheme will be politically a very correct decision.
- Advantage to Farmers:
Since most of the below poverty line population lives in villages, the scheme will provide immense support to the rural population. Farmers will have a fixed monthly income irrespective of what happens to their crops. This will provide their families will immense support in the times of crisis and cases of farmer’s suicides may come down drastically. Of course it will have to be provided in the rules that this monthly income will not be attached for any purpose whatsoever and will be credited to the beneficiary women’s account only on a monthly basis.
- Better Growth and GDP:
The availability of money in the hands of the needy will make it seamlessly flow through the market. Food and FMCG items will experience excellent growth. Where this money is available as extra income to some sectors of middle class families, it will lead to growth in many other industries like two wheelers, TVs, housing, smart phones etc. It can be easily expected that a considerable portion of the spending will come back to the government in the form of taxes.
- Rehabilitation of widows:
It will provide an automatic rehabilitation to the widows and separated women, enabling them to live a life of self respect and self dependence. It will also reduce the menace of prostitution to a great extent.
- AADHAR and JAN-DHAN promotion:
When people come to know about the scheme, no woman will remain without aadhar card and bank account, thus speeding up their implementation.
15. Reduction in Crime rate:
As the children will be better looked after, there will be less criminals, naxalites and terrorists created out of them.
Source of funding:
While the economists of the government are the best judges on how to fund the scheme, it is suggested that at least 50% should come from the borrowings, by increasing the fiscal deficit to 5 to 6 % from the current 3.2%. While the opinion of economists will vary highly on the issue, an article by “Prabhat Singh titled ‘Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Fiscal Deficit’ dated 08.02.2016 in The Wire.in” is worth reading, where he recommends increasing of fiscal deficit for promoting growth.
Rajesh kumar jain
Ex Chief Signal Engineer
West Central Railway
INDIA
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