Sunday, November 19, 2006

Gyan Pathak

There must be a plan that can take care of all the people living in a country, and all those who may come by virtue of their birth in the meantime. It is the general principle. It must reflect in any planning of our government for any period whatsoever. However, unfortunately, this is not the approach of our government on the eve of the Eleventh Plan period (2007 - 12).

The Objectives and Challenges mentioned in the approach paper for the Eleventh Plan are much more rhetoric and covert that plain and overt. This, of course, serves certain political and economic purposes of the ruling class, but not the common people.

Growth and development is the general principle. Our government wants it “faster” and “more inclusive”. That is why the approach paper is titled “Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth.”

It has been in fashion since 1992, to emphasize on growth rate, especially in the new economic policy regime. It helps camouflaging worst of the human conditions of the common people under a high rate of growth of a few by telling people the mean of the growth rate which is always much higher than the actual growth rate of the commons.

This government, on which lies the onus of preparing the draft of the Eleventh Plan, has resorted to the same tactics by emphasizing on higher growth rate targets in the Eleventh Plan period. The Planning Commission is therefore working for such a plan that can push our growth rate to 10 per cent. They are searching for “appropriate policies” to somehow achieve this target.

It is clear that the objective of the government is not “equitable growth rate”. At most it says “more inclusive.” Therefore, there is no hope for the common people that they are to be treated as equal partners in the growth process and equitable distribution of its benefit. They can only hope for some “welfare” measures because in the eyes of our planners, they do not need or deserve more than one or two loaves from the immense benefit accrued by the few, which they love to call more inclusive.

If we go by the pragmatics of language, the growth till date has not been inclusive of all, especially the common people. The target of growth set at eight per cent for the Tenth Plan period (2002 - 07) could not also be achieved. We achieved only a growth rate of seven percent, the figure that the government is harping on to keep the people in good humour by telling us that it is the highest ever growth rate for any plan period in India.

However, the people of the country are more interested in knowing the reason as to why we could not achieve the target set in this plan period in particular, and all other official targets in general. There might be several explanations from the government and one of them must be the acceptance of the fact that targets are set at unrealistically higher level only to appease the people or to draw political mileage for the time being. We are being told that our Union government is going to set a target of 10 per cent in the Eleventh Plan period.

Large parts of our population are still to experience a decisive improvement in their standard of living. Far too many people still lack access to basic services such as health, education, clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. Regional disparities in availability of these services are ever wider, and the rural India is facing a severe crisis.

What should be done in this scenario? A new vision of growth and restructuring the policies are the traditional answers. These are included in the approach paper also, while harping on the same chord which failed to achieve the target set for the Tenth Plan, both in terms of growth rate and in the human development indices. Old wine in a new bottle? Perhaps.

Our planners have only one mantra - Make the growth rate higher, and it would solve our problems. They are not even considering “equitable growth rate” at every stage of development activities, because it is beyond their capacity to implement on the one hand and a lack of willingness on the other. The whole approach paper is littered with the rhetoric of doing something for the common people, but the words are not substantiated with the whole hearted approach in this regard.

Our population is growing at the rate of 1.5 per cent per year. We certainly need a growth rate in our economy that can take care of this growing population. However, the split of the population addition in the rich and upper middle classes is much lower than the additions in poor, lower middle and middle classes. The benefit of the economic growth must go in proportion to the addition in population of the respective classes. The approach paper did not think them equal partners in growth but merely lesser beings who would be given the benefit of welfare schemes and the cream of the growth will be given to others.

The approach paper itself reveals that even if we succeed in achieving broad based and inclusive growth, there are many groups that may still be marginalized. These include primitive tribal groups, adolescent girls, children in the age group of zero to 3, and others who do not have strong lobbies to ensure that their rights are guaranteed.

The approach paper emphasized much on the private sector by telling us that this sector accounts for 70 per cent of the total investment in the economy. This time it includes even farming apart from small scale enterprises and the corporate sector. It is precisely the policy being vigorously followed for over one and half decade.

We need to move away from a focus on outlays to a hard look at outcomes. Nobody can deny it, but each individual has its own meaning. For the government it means the release of funds only when they are utilized with desired outcomes dictated by some superior beings in our government or the foreign forces controlling out leaderships. We have been witnessing this in our country where many state governments are not being given funds without implementing reform agenda.

The objectives and challenges deliberated much upon the benefits of globalization, which indicates that the Eleventh Plan would be more incorporated with the scheme of things that the global forces wants than our own people. And it would be done again in the name of providing essential public services for the poor, regaining agricultural dynamism, increasing manufacturing competitiveness, developing human resources, protecting the environment, improving rehabilitation and resettlement practices, and improving governance.#