Social benefit schemes – A double edged sword

Social benefit schemes are undoubtedly a powerful tool for reducing poverty and inequality by providing additional support to marginalized populations. Like most other countries India has also initiated a host of schemes to upbring the vulnerable segments. Whether it’s a direct cash transfer or caste reservation; such subsidiaries have brought about changes in the lives of social beneficiaries.

• The Central Government offers several pension schemes for the financial security of the eligible elders and widows of India.
• There are provisions for one-time lumpsum to the families below the poverty line for the unfortunate death of the prime earners.
• Besides these two major schemes various state governments have started social benefit schemes of direct cash transfers.
• The food security program and health care schemes like Ayushman Bharat are in place.
• The Central Government focus on Economic Empowerment through Self-Help Groups and Skill development and loans.
• Prodhanmontri gram sorok jojona is there for rural development.
• Prodhanmontri Gramin abas Jojona aims at building homes for the people belonging to the below poverty level (BPL) of India.

Let’s look at the aftermath of the implementation of such huge number of social benefit schemes in India.

Caste Based Reservation

The constitution provisioned caste based reservation for Scheduled classes and Scheduled tribes only and that too for ten years.  Now, the caste reservation system has enhanced to a huge percentage by proving reservations for SC, ST and Other Backward Classes (OBC). Moreover, constitution has been amended several times and the proposed 10 years have been extended almost for the infinite time.

Such an instance prove that the reservation system failed to upbring the marginalized population into the main stream. Notably, such reservations shrink the facilities for the General category people to keep provisions for social beneficiaries. Had the target been the Social Justice and Inclusivity, it’s a long way to go. Rather, the result has shown that an abysmally small segment has reaped the benefit.

The schemes for access to education, healthcare, and skill development have certainly helped the marginalized people to come to the main stream. Rather the Production linked poverty alleviation scheme like MGNREGA has helped both the poor social beneficiaries as well as the State. We may celebrate the International Day for Eradication of Poverty, but the question remains whether it reaches the poor in reality.

Indiscrimination by Social benefit schemes

The question comes whether we have been able to Eliminate discrimination even after 75 years of independence. The precise answer is NO. One can find discrimination based on religion, caste, creed, gender. There are some states in the country where the political discrimination has become vibrant. Could we bring the Uniform Civil Code in reality even today?

Empowerment of women and children is yet to face the success of desired level. The ILO-UNICEF report of 2023 reveals that only 26.4 per cent of children have social protection coverage, which is far below the worldwide figure of 35 per cent. The empowerment of women has not been successful as per expectation due to Implementation Deficits and political interferences.

Rather such poverty alleviation projects put a huge strain on the revenue and hinders the other development programs. Besides the Fiscal burden, it also tends to make people become reliant on Government gifts instead of looking for hard earned money.

If one turns to West Bengal, there are a bunch of unproductive direct cash transfer schemes have fetched votes for the ruling parties but the other development works like health, education and infrastructure have become disastrous.

The future of  social benefit schemes

We don’t oppose to social benefit schemes, but we clearly demand that the schemes should reach only to the eligible social beneficiaries in India. The Government has to formulate a clear strategy to identify the eligibility without political biasness. The Administration has to ensure that the stringent system should eliminate the chances of corruption or money-laundering. We must also reinstate that we should execute such schemes for a definite period and measure the outcome.

The indiscriminate cash transfer in the name of social benefit schemes may increase the popularity but can only create dreaded scourge for the state.