Heading into a busy election year, the UPA is planning to highlight the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme that identifies 15 welfare schemes and action points for the welfare of minorities and reserves 15 per cent of resources of the schemes for them.The Gujarat Government led by Narendra Modi may be the first to question the programme, but this time, he may cite evidence. Working on one of the most detailed below poverty line lists prepared by any state, Gujarat has been able to provide benefits to many deprived communities in the state, irrespective of caste and religion.They are beneficiaries of a surfeit of Central and state-sponsored schemes — from free housing to self-employment training: • Madhuben Ravjibhai Raval and Nazirabanu Irshad Ali, both widows, live in houses provided to them by the state Government under the Indira Awas Yojana. • Till August 31, 2007, 948 families headed by widows had been allotted houses under the scheme. • 49,487 families in Ahmedabad district surviving on an average monthly income of Rs 1,500-Rs 2,500 have been earmarked for assistance under various central and state-sponsored schemes.• Among them are 317 widows, from various backgrounds, and identified by the BPL list as the most deprived and deserving.• In Banaskantha district, 68,954 families with less than two pairs of clothing will be getting assistance. • The 1,48,707 families surviving on one square meal a day in the state for a major part of the year will be provided vocational training for self-employment.• The process of allotting houses to 5,03,303 homeless families has already started. Even in the communally polarised Ahmedabad district, where Muslims face social and economic boycott at several places, a widow like Nazirabanu Ishadali Saiyed of Pirana village got a new house under the Indira Awas Yojana. In the neighbouring village of Kasindra, another widow, Manguben Dholabhai Bhangi, belonging to a Scheduled Caste, has got a similar house. “This is like godsend for my two minor sons and me. We used to live in a plastic tent, but one day, about a year ago, I was asked to fill a routine form, and last monsoon I got this house,” says Nazirabanu, who works as a farm labourer.Till six months ago, Manguben Bhangi couldn’t have imagined being allowed by villagers of upper castes to live in their neighbourhood. But now, instead of a squalid cattleshed, she lives in an IAY house. “My worries about where my children will spend their growing years are over,” she says. The BPL list has also helped Kamlesh B Vaghri of Nadiad, the unemployed son of an agriculture labourer, to receive training in garment manufacturing from the Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute, Nadiad.Under the Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana, he received a loan of Rs 10,000 from Bank of Baroda to start a tailoring unit at home and is now earning between Rs 4,000 to and 5,500 per month. “Enough to sustain the family and also maintain this mobile phone,” quips Vaghari, who has now paid off the loan.Gujarat’s BPL list was compiled in 2003 after a socio-economic survey of about 69 lakh families across the state. The survey was based on 16 parameters, including food security, size of land holding, means of livelihood, type of house, status of children, average availability of clothes, type of indebtedness, reason for migration, sanitation, preference of assistance, consumer items owned, literacy status, whether the head of the house was a widow or a dependant, or whether a member was handicapped. Depending on how they fared vis a vis the parameters, a list of nearly 11 lakh families was finally generated. The Rural Development Department’s Monitoring Officer, R J Shah, says that to keep the survey fair, the form did not seek details of religion or caste, though families were given the option of mentioning SC/ST or OBC status.However, Shah quickly adds: “It did not matter because being SC/ST or OBC was not the criteria. Only those who fit the 16 parameters (which don’t include caste or religion) were eligible.” “There is no question of anyone getting benefits through recommendations from any quarter. If you are not in the list, you are not entitled,” says Shah.
