‘Garibi hatao’ in Covid time

Though pilloried as mere propaganda and electoral rhetoric, the early 1970s slogan ‘garibi hatao’ had its continuing relevance and came well within the tradition of several anti-poverty programmes with quite a history of nomenclatures.

At that time, the proportion of the poor in the country was being credibly estimated at about 70-73% --the BPL people variously reckoned spread unevenly across the Indian states. And over the years, steadily and fitfully manifold achievements were perceptible on the development front: improvements in HDI, health, longevity, education, dropout rates, income parameters due to government spending and planning, and self-propelled efforts of people, women and youth, villagers and urbanites, agriculturists and industrial workers/entrepreneurs.

There was steady growth and a particular reduction in absolute poverty though relative poverty and inequality have been galloping persistently. As absolute poverty witnessed a steady decline, the ranks of the middle class, their incomes, including the unearned ones, and savings swelled (the proportion of household savings to GDP steadily witnessed improvements to 30% and more). Their numbers have reached about 75-80 crore. And, increasingly, many gradually became variously inured and insensitive to obnoxious inequality and increasing relative poverty.

This provoked a political talking point and pandering to these neo-rich, and was a consolidating vote-bank or electoral enterprise. The phraseology and its political use changed. Anti-poverty devices like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), loans to the poor and general subsidies for agriculture and rural areas were looked at derisively, particularly since 2014.

Systemic causes of poverty, like the absence of a level playing field, were belittled and ignored. This was a corollary to the steady right-ward drift in the economic, social policy, favouring capital instead of labour and poor. 'The government policy and administration should be less ‘povertarian’ and focus on the so-called aspirational middle classes’ became a popular articulation, though not ubiquitously vociferous.

The attitude or belief is that poverty will decline if incomes of the skilled, productive, investing entrepreneurial classes are ensured by lower taxes and bank interest rates, and above all by ‘ease of doing business’ policies (manifest damage to the environment and manifold pollution of precincts did not much matter). The economy was sought to be run by ‘trickle-down of employment and incomes’ policy and direct attack on poverty lost preference.

The year 2016, the aftermath of demonetisation, was somewhat of a watershed in economic policies and envisagement of people’s woes, rather extant practices, needs and preferences. Before 2012-13, for nearly six years, there was a manifest trend reduction of BPL numbers majorly owing to the unveiling and implementation of the famous anti-poverty MGNREGA, indeed a ‘garibi hatao’ programme.

Rural wages, including those of women, witnessed a steady annual increase of 6-8% and drift migration into urban centres was controlled and more girls remained in schools for longer years. But the 2016 demonetisation blow severely disrupted the highly cash-centric informal sector in cities as well as villages, largely disabling 50 crore or more unorganised labour, heuristically said to be contributing nearly 50% of the total GDP.

And low growth ensued and poverty did not diminish; rather there were signs of stagnation and increase in unemployment among the unorganised workers.

Rising numbers of poor

Then came the 2019 Covid-19 pandemic engulfing the country and the world. Lockdown measures further slowed down the economy and crores of labour returned to their native. This increased poverty numbers by about 7.5 crore — the poor are now reported to have swelled to 13.4 crore, according to a Pew Research Centre estimate. This sudden accrual to poverty numbers and unfathomed/unsurveyed features of unemployment and poverty has provoked increased widespread demand for the officially pooh-poohed (hole digging!) MGNREGA programme of income spreading.

Also, occurrences of floods and droughts have persisted and these need a systemic approach about conservation of available rainwater in local, small and big water bodies.

The identification of these localised MGNREGA works and their undertaking along with the necessary investment in a really participatory democracy spirit will ensure a trajectory of irreversible development at the grassroots in cities and villages.

This will intrinsically improve production, income and consumption inexorably and impact general industrial development across all sectors as well as geographical areas. Or, this MGNREGA ‘garibi hatao’ programme will lend realism to all kinds of economic reconstruction, including skill development, raising financial resources and investment.

(The writer is a public affairs enthusiast)