Inclusive growth:

One gets apprehensive at the above term also degenerating to the slogan ‘ Garibi hatao ‘which has been used ad nauseam during the last few decades. Because it would appear that it has become more or less mandatory for politicians, bureaucrats, economists, social scientists, fourth estate, NGOs, etc., to emphasise in their speeches and articles on the need to have inclusive growth. It is turning out to be a cliché. Over used term tends to lose its significance. What does inclusive growth mean. The benefit of high economic growth should reach the poor also. Actually it is bypassing many of the dirt poor people. And they are large in number. Hence vote bank also. And many genuinely feel that economic development is incomplete unless the poor are lifted from their desperate situation. Further, such down trodden people need to be empowered so that they can gainfully partake in the significant growth the economy is witnessing.

All the economic development achieved so far had to a large extent not benefited millions of people, whose lot has been more or less as it was fifty years back Our economic structure is such that by far even any future growth would bye pass them. Hence deliberate action is needed to take them out of the rut.

An analogy can be cited. A father having two sons, one brilliant and successful and another crippled. Will not the father and the successful son look after the crippled. Similarly, the state, in the role of the father and those who had made it in the role of the brother have an obligation to look after the down trodden in the country.

Three meals a day, a roof over their head, minimum health services, electricity, water, educational facilities, gainful occupation - in a nutshell the poor must have these for the country to achieve inclusive growth. But what is the actual position. It is a miserable existence for millions of people. This has been graphically brought out by Magsasay Price winning author Sainath in his book ‘ Everybody loves a drought.’

There is also another angle to the issue. Naxalites are able to woo many of these people to join their cadres. The influx to cities is largely on account of the extreme poverty in some of the villages and far flung areas, adding to the problems of cities. With poor medical facilities health of many is permanently impaired. With no education, children grow up doing only manual labour which becomes the only occupation they can have. The list goes on.

With ‘ trickle down theory’ not working, all now agree that Governments would have to take affirmative action to achieve the goal of inclusive growth.

But then the question is which is the body which should take effective affirmative action. The answer simply is ‘the Government.’ There are severe limitations for the private sector or NGOs to become change managers. Money is not the limiting factor. Governments have been allocating larger and larger funds for achieving the objective. But most of it is siphoned off in the pipeline.

There is increasing awareness in the private sector that it must augment the efforts of Government in this direction. Hopefully this would gather momentum. Many NGOs are doing excellent work. But the fact remains that the ball is squarely in the court of the Government.

Huge funds are earmarked for various development projects by the Central and State Governments. Apart from the same, Governments have initiated various schemes, such as, minimum gainful employment, more schools, etc., Theft of the money in the pipeline is the major problem. Obviously this can be tacked by Governments only.

Why not Governments set up committees at the Panchayat, and District levels with the MPs & MLAs of the area, Collector, Panchayat Presidents, Municipalities and NGOs to monitor the functioning of various schemes. The deliberations of such groups should be open and fourth estate should take a lead in giving publicity to deliberations of such groups and pin point areas of lapses and concern. Execution of projects through Rs. 2 crore per MP allocated should also be in the agenda of such meetings. Somewhere along the line participation of people with these discussions should be ensured. College and school teachers also need to be involved.

What is important is to ensure exposure of the misdeeds of those who are siphoning off funds and taking up fanciful projects.

Unless some such initiative as mentioned above is initiated, Governments would continue to bemoan at the siphoning of funds and poor would remain poor and inclusive growth will be a mirage to the down trodden. Those who benefit from the growth will go on shouting at India overtaking USA in GDP growth. But unless all of us hear the wail of the poor, we can only be termed as hypocrites.

I would like to sign off this write up with a note of pessimism. Are people concerned with this state of affairs. Only a few. That is the tragedy. In this country for ages poverty has been there. The rich and middle class took poverty of the lower classes as their fate. That is in the psyche of the middle class and affluent. That makes the issue all the more poignant.
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