Not letting ideology or politics come in the way of growth

Henry George, in 1879 in his seminal work Progress and Poverty, said, ‘‘So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent’’.

To bridge these inequities, it is important we leverage our strengths and garner our resources and use them optimally. Sustainable use of resources calls for perspective planning. It is also essential that political parties and various pressure groups rise above petty differences and agree on priorities in sustainable development. Irrespective of affiliation and ideology, I believe there can be a commonality in development goals.

Sustainability of a development initiative is determined by the carrying capacity of the resource base. Be it a forest, a road, a school, it is vital that the pressure on the resource is not allowed to cross the critical threshold. This can be possible only by diverting the increasing demand onto alternatives. So we will need new schools, more roads and need to plant more trees. In case of natural resources, the off-take has to be in sync with the input into the base. It makes good business sense, not to eat into the capital.

The next important issue in prosperity is diversification of income sources and tapping the inherent capabilities of ‘groups’. Indeed from a purely agrarian economy, India has transformed, thanks to the manufacturing and services sectors. Yet, there exists a sharp rural-urban divide. This stems from the differences in opportunities for various social strata. At the village, town and community level, it is important that diversity of opportunity is created and people be organised in ‘groups’. It is the lack of equality, which makes it imperative that the disadvantaged work in groups. This allows smarter utilisation of scarce resources. These groups may be Self Help Groups, Water Users Committees, Forest Protection and Management Committees or any other. It is also a welcome sign that often these groups act as ‘watchdogs’ and perform admirably in the role of ‘social conscience’.

In recent times, empowerment of grassroot institutions including the Panchayati Raj Institutions has been much talked about. On paper, transfer of funds, functions and functionaries sounds good. Yet, such empowerment is of little use unless capacity building and extension precede it. There are too many micro-level social inequalities, which need to be catered for, before these institutions are truly ‘peoples’ institutions.

Transfer of technology to the disadvantaged is an essential task in the quest for prosperity. Technology today permits optimum usage of resources. This why the ‘Village Knowledge Centres’ are important. This is exactly why we want to popularise drips and sprinklers in Rajasthan. Every empowered country knows that water is a fundamental necessity and finds ways of providing it.

Worldwide, the adage ‘user pays’ is the ‘in’ thing. The common man is supposed to pay for water, for roads, for conservancy and even policing. Yet, more often than not, political compulsions prevent us from making user charges rational. All over the country, Electricity companies are in the red, Urban Bodies are bankrupt. Are these symptoms of prosperity?

On the other hand, it is time the citizen is not made to pay for inefficiency. The citizen pays tax. He has the right to see his money is used properly and not used in profligacy or to line pockets of the dishonest. Our citizens are what make India a successful democracy. They have the right to proper governance. The citizen has the right to know how he is being governed, how ‘his money’ is being spent. It is imperative that the common man walks into the Collectorate, the Police Station, the Municipal office or the Bank for his legitimate needs and grievances, without trepidation.

One of the more redeeming features of the country’s progress is the enhanced levels of private initiative in development. Today the country is full of examples of successful private-public partnerships. Corporate social responsibility is taken seriously. This is something that requires more institutionalised support. Similarly, non-governmental or voluntary initiatives in development management are also something to be supported. The voluntary sector is an important limb of governance. Good initiatives of theirs need to be replicated. With their support, an active social capital of communities can be developed. This is the primary step in empowering communities.

India is a federation of states. Maximum resource mobilisation is by the Centre while service delivery is through the states. There is a pressing need to cater for requirements and performance. Terrain, demography and climate will have to be factored in while deciding allocations. Provisions shall have to be made in scheme guidelines keeping in mind micro-conditions. The floods of Assam and the drought in Rajasthan will have to be catered for individually. Area development, resource base management and developing the human capital are of equal importance in the path to prosperity.

While it is fashionable to wax eloquent about India’s ‘Unity in Diversity’, we usually tend not to discuss the vast inequality in resource distribution. A lot of the country’s inequalities have their roots in this resource variation. Every year, eastern India reels under the fury of floods while we in Rajasthan stare at cloudless skies. To our north are neighbours gifted with perennial rivers while we are at the mercy of their whims and fancies. No, India is not equal. The India of tomorrow cannot afford this inequality, such partisan approaches to development.

Our food stocks are high and we lead the world in cutting edge IT. Rich in mineral resources, a mega-biodiversity, teeming human resource we have it all. Yet we are part of the third world. We as a nation are unable to attain our true potential, because poverty levels are still very high, in spite of substantial investments in poverty alleviation schemes. Social inequities are still commonplace and the quality of basic health care and education leaves much to be desired. As long as we do not attend to the basic malaise, i.e. quality health care for all and proper education of all, development in this country will be restricted to a few urban centres.

Without substantial improvement in the status of Education and Health care, removal of poverty and growth of the country cannot be ensured. At the same time, for growth, it is essential that a minimum infrastructure is in place. Being bashful while talking about China will not help. We too need to identify ‘nodes’ and focus infrastructure and radially connect these nodes. This is not an easy task. This is not, however an impossible task either. As it is said, if we have the will, we will find a way.

In recent times ‘growth mediated’ development has been a buzz word in development management. Indeed, economic growth allows resource generation. These resources permit increased public spending in social services. Yet, it would be incorrect to expect automatic removal of deprivation and impoverishment just because of economic growth. Increased income to the poor is only a part of the exercise. It is even more important to attend to those ‘unfreedoms’—a term used by Professor Amartya Sen while pointing out that preventable diseases are prevalent, illiteracy is unceasing, needless hunger and premature mortality does exist, as does social exclusion, and economic insecurity.

Professor Sen has opined, ‘‘…the ability of the poor to participate in economic growth depends on a variety of enabling social conditions. It is hard to participate in the expansionary process of the market mechanism (especially in a world of globalised trade) if one is illiterate and unschooled, or if one is bothered by under-nourishment and ill health, or if social barriers (such as discrimination related to race or gender) excludes substantial parts of humanity from fair economic participation. Similarly, if one has no capital (not even a tiny plot of land in the absence of land reform), and no access to micro-credit (without the security of collateral ownership), it is not easy for a person to show much economic enterprise in the market economy.’’

How do we empower ourselves if we do not factor in these basics? India is what the states make it. If States do poorly, so does the country. Except for islands like Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the rest of India needs to do a lot more in achieving proper levels of the human development indices. Indeed, the development agenda of India is much larger and complex than say the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). India, like any other country has to follow its own development agenda most suited for its peoples’ aspirations and its resources. However, no party or group would argue that the MDGs are unachievable or untouchable.

Just as the nation needs its own development agenda, the States too have their own requirements. Rajasthan with 10% of the country’s mass is the largest of States. In many ways, Rajasthan typifies all that is lacking in empowering the people in its truest sense. A part of this is its historical burden. The rest is due to apathy in policy making in the recent past. In a struggle as epic as its timeless history, Rajasthan is struggling to get out of poverty, malnutrition and severe gender inequity. Rajasthan is struggling to empower its masses.

Quite often the state’s development efforts face a roadblock in the form of acute recurrent drought. Drought is a calamity which is not dramatic like a cyclone, an earthquake or a tsunami. Yet it eats into the very vitals of the States’ economy. The Government has little option but to divert scarce resources meant for development to provide relief. Would it be that illogical to ask for a bit more concern about the States’ requirements—from the Centre and from neighbours? I was in Bangalore in February this year and at the behest of Dr Kasturirangan, saw for myself the activities of the ‘Akshay Patra Trust’. What I saw was a modern clean and hygienic kitchen where a nourishing hot meal is cooked for thousands of school children from poor families and served to them at their schools. I visited a few of the schools. I saw healthy, intelligent and smart children who did not hesitate to quiz me in English on the largest bird in the world and what ‘STF’ stood for. These children were from the poorest strata of the city.

On my request, the ‘Akshay Patra’ has started operations in Jaipur city. They are feeding 25,000 children in Jaipur. Not only so, they have also started decentralised kitchens in Baran, a backward district where a primitive tribe called Sahariya reside. There they are feeding over 5,000 children and mothers in 36 villages. Not only so, there are a number of corporate social initiatives like the one by Havells India who are using their factory kitchen to cook and supply to 2,000 children in schools near the industrial area. This what ‘hope’ is all about.

The challenge is big. We have 32 districts and over a crore of children. We are looking for ways and means to involve donors, business houses and self help groups to take over this programme totally and deliver a mid-day meal in all schools in the way it should be. A healthy child is an attentive child. Similarly, it is essential that the pre school child (age group 3-6 years) too gets the benefit of a hot cooked meal. A proper mid-may meal goes a long way in ensuring ‘nutrition security’ and not just food security.

In tribal areas, where populations are always susceptible to the vagaries of climate, the food security issue crops up again and again. In the 21st century, residents of Kalahandi, Purulia and Baran should be as secure as residents of Jaipur and Bangalore. We have emulated Madhya Pradesh and are distributing a kilogram of iodised salt each month to all tribal families. A small intervention like this can counter iodine deficiency and its fallout rather easily.

Benjamin Disraeli had correctly observed that, ‘‘the health of the people is really the foundation upon which all happiness and all their powers as a state depend’’. In matters of Health care, issues that frequently crop up include shortage of resources and manpower and regional inequities in access and outreach. As urbanization progresses, curative services favour the non-poor.

It has been debated for long as to why Public Health Programmes have low levels of efficiency, effectiveness and accountability. In my opinion, firstly it is because of the lack of evolution of skill-sets of healthcare managers. Secondly, there is a lack of ownership of public health programmes by communities. The third reason is the lack of synergy. In Government systems, most people like to function in isolation. This typically leads to limited synergy between sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and drinking water issues. The entire problem is compounded by stark bureaucratic insensitivity. Yet, in a welfare state, it remains the responsibility of governments to extend a minimum level of health care at affordable prices. It is a fact that in rural India, a poor family is debt ridden for life, if a family member is hospitalized for a life threatening ailment. Hospital expenses alone ensure families stay below the poverty line.

Health insurance goes a long way in providing security to a poor family. Dr. Devi Shetty’s Yashashwani scheme paved the way for rural health insurance. We in Rajasthan are in the process of insuring families of 2.5 lakh Dairy Co-operative members as a pilot. A debilitating disease should not be allowed to reduce a poor family to penury.

An evolved society is typified by gender justice. Gender justice is about ameliorating conditions regarding position of men and women in society-where there are differences in opportunities, roles and situations between women and men, particularly differences in access to power and control as well as economic issues. These differences are influenced by factors like unequal access to and control over resources and property, inequity in education and training, employment, decision-making; unequal access to and control over benefits that are generated from resources or development interventions; gender division of labour within the families and communities.

Historically, under the garb of socio-cultural and religious strictures, women have not been treated fairly, leave aside equally. Human rights are a matter of equality. Women and men are equal; therefore, they have equal human rights. These rights include the right of choice and security in marriage; the right to land, property and inheritance; reproductive rights; the right to education and employment; the right to their individual identities; and the right to freedom from violence. The social and economic structures and conditions that disqualify women from getting the same treatment, advantages or privileges as men, even though they have equal rights to these, are issues of equity. These issues require urgent attention.

As a citizen of 21st century India, the India of Sania Mirza, Kalpana Chawla, and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, I hang my head in shame when I hear about conscious female foeticide. Is the girl child still so unwelcome? The Rajya Sabha has just passed an amendment to the Hindu Succession Act ending decades of discrimination between men and women in matters of inheritance. Women now will become equal shareholders in family property. But the task is far from done. There is a need to revisit the gender discriminatory provisions in the various personal laws of communities in this country. After 58 years of independence, a group of clerics issue a ‘fatwah’ that women of a particular community are not to participate in a democratic process! True empowerment is still far away.

Not many of us spare a thought to the niche requirements of the fairer sex. Lack of toilets and drinking water in schools is a major reason as to why girls drop out more than do boys. Some of our initiatives are directed at these necessities. We are providing proper drinking water and toilet facilities in schools as this has a direct correlation with retention of the girl child. The tribal girl often has to travel long distances to school. We decided to give all school going tribal girls of classes IX to XII bicycles to enable them easier access to education.

In a welfare state, development cannot be directed by market forces alone. Ours is a pluralistic society and allowances and provisions have to be made for the disadvantaged. We need to have clear policies for empowerment of women. Organizing women to be economically productive citizens is both a challenge and a fulfillment. There are unique reproductive and child health requirements without attending to which, emancipation of women shall remain a dream. I have already talked about retention of the girl child in school. Similarly, the adolescent girl has special nutritional requirements as has the pregnant woman and the lactating mother. This is why we are appointing over 25,000 extra workers called ‘SAHIYOGINIs’ in Anganwadi centers so that door step services can be provided. The Departments of Health and Woman and Child Development are co-operating to have on a fixed day, a mother and child health and nutrition day at each Aanganwadi Centre; this is helping in post-natal care and immunization. Indeed small steps these are, but with a potential that defies computation, when it comes to empowerment.

To reduce the gaps between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’, positive discrimination in favour of vulnerable segments is important in order to allow a level playing field. The girl child and the tribal boy both need to be supported so that they can compete as equals with the urban sophisticate. This might not make good business sense, but it does make better social and if I may add, good political sense.

There are no shortcuts to success. Success is a journey, we need to traverse together. It is essential that formally or informally a national agenda for development is decided upon. The country cannot afford quarrels in development. The requirements are real and the goal of prosperity is common. With limited immediate resources, prioritizing interventions is vital. In the road to development, every partner has to live up to its share—both a duty and a responsibility. It is important to realize that programme quality has a greater bearing on outcomes and not the pace.

To sum it all, good governance is a must. My India of tomorrow is where there is equality of opportunity for all. Where performance is rewarded and the disadvantaged are cared for. In my India, ones caste, creed, sex or religion will not put him or her at a disadvantage. My India of tomorrow is where men and women are really equal. In an empowered India, the states are stronger—leading to a stronger, better India. My vision for an empowered India is real. I am confident of the future. All it needs is to start believing.