Welfare state to Development state
Welfare state to Development state
India being a country with huge land mass and huge population, is a home to the majority of downtrodden people. It had been a welfare state ever since it got independence for there's nothing the Britishers have left us except for large chinks of poverty and illiteracy. Since then our leaders are trying their best to support people by providing basic needs, giving them subsidies, allotting them quotas in education and employment, hoping someday India would be done being a welfare state. But even after 75 years of independence, we are still in the same state. People are looking to the government for help and the government being the brand ambassador of a welfare state, grants subsidies in everything necessary and unnecessary as a part of vote bank politics.
In this process, governments are missing the main point. If this welfare economic strategy is what the governments can offer, then there's no hope for a developmental state in the decades to come. Welfare is an important concept in any state, I agree, but it shouldn't push people into a state of laziness and escapism. Yes, governments offering MSP to crops is a necessary step. Giving pensions to the old is an unavoidable measure for people's welfare. Funding for girls' education and marriage is a step to be taken to showcase equality. Providing quality meals for children and pregnant women are measures to fight malnutrition. Allotting houses and pensions for the ex-military people is a deed of gratitude. Reservation of seats for the underprivileged in educational institutions is a step taken to fight illiteracy.
But, is that all the governments are doing? Is this where the welfare strategy stops?
And the answer is a certain NO. For instance, consider the government of AP, took welfare strategy to a next level by introducing the concept of 'Navarathnalu', where govt. provides monetary help to everything and everyone without any reason. This concept of Navarathnalu is not that bad at all, actually the govt. did a very good job in identifying certain neglected areas and people, suffering from the so-called, 'not so big issues, but the only flaw it had is, the govt. trying to solve everything with money instead of providing a better working environment. The program of Ammavodi where the government pays the mother a certain amount for sending her child to school isn't necessary when it can be handled by a regular teacher's perusal. Government depositing money regularly into the accounts of auto drivers, dhobis and various other communities is not necessary when they have a livelihood to survive. Instead the govt. can upgrade their living by providing calculated help to attain decent living conditions. The introduction of a new PDS system, where the government goes to the beneficiary to deliver the goods isn't really necessary as it only created havoc both for the people and the treasury. In turn, it turned people to be lazy.
To conclude, I would like to say that there's a need for the governments to emphasize upgrading people's lives by creating better working conditions and encouraging them to learn skills and build themselves instead of just giving them a certain amount a year, which will improve neither their lives nor the country's status as a developing nation. Without prophesying any further about the oblivious future, let's just introspect and stop, what we had to and start, what we have to.
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