Governments must act before things worsen
The findings of independent India’s first Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 are extremely disturbing and point to the enormous effort that is needed to change things on the ground in rural India. It is also a reflection of the failures on the part of various Governments since independence to address the issue effectively. It is shocking that even more than 65 years of freedom, nearly 11 crore people live in utter deprivation; more than half the number of families in rural areas depend on manual casual labour as their primary source of income; and manual scavenging is still prevalent, though in small numbers. In all, 60 per cent of rural India lives in distress, with one of the significant causes being a lack of literacy. Clearly, something somewhere has gone terribly wrong with policies for the poor and their implementation.
The findings should propel the Narendra Modi-led Government to bring more focus on its efforts to tackle the problems. They are of course not of a nature that can be set right overnight, but if they have to be addressed at all, specific schemes have to be formulated and executed without delay. The good thing about the census is that it has hit us like a hammer and has forced us to re-think.
For the Government, the figures will help in framing targeted schemes and compel policymakers to look beyond GDP growth rates. Of course, if rural India comes out of the present crisis, then GDP growth too will enhance. While this is not an issue of politics, it cannot be denied that populist policies of certain previous regimes, supposedly meant to benefit the poor, never performed the task they were mandated with. Either the policies had been wrongly framed or poorly implemented. Rural India needs employment opportunities, better educational and health infrastructure, extensive irrigation facilities and electricity.
The caste factor stands out conspicuously in the glum data, and this a matter of added concern. The 56 per cent of the rural population that does not own land largely comprises Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; nearly 30 per cent of the rural population belongs to the SC and the ST categories. This, and the finding that some 83 per cent of the ST and ST households had income of less than Rs5,000 per month, demonstrate the long road empowerment has to travel for the marginalised people.
While progress in the decades gone by has been made, a good deal has been skewed. Imagine, more than 85 per cent of rural Uttar Pradesh has mobile phone penetration but an abysmal shortage of power supply; nearly 21 per cent of rural households in Bihar have motor vehicles but the state of education is in a complete mess. With an average household income of just Rs5,000 per month (in the case of an overwhelming 75 per cent of rural India), there is only that much a family can do to emerge out of the poverty trap. The NDA Government's various social welfare schemes, its move to effectively target subsidies and plug leakages, and the recently announced pan-India irrigation project, should contribute to the uplift of the rural masses. Since agriculture remains a primary source of income, it deserves special attention. Both the Centre and the States have to work in tandem to correct the anomalies.