Today’s lead editorial in Mint is a paean to Chacha’s unique identity card project to create biometric ID cards for a billion people – but I find it difficult to agree with the editors’ view on this.
They conclude that this ID project is the only way by which direct cash transfers can be given to the poor:
“The truth is that given India’s grating inequalities direct cash transfers are the only way out. The successful execution of UID is key to that end.”
Oh! The poor. The poor. If only everyone would just leave the poor alone.
In reality, in all our cities and towns, the poor are EXPLOITED by the functionaries of The Chacha State. They never receive anything; rather, they are coerced into coughing up their surpluses to Chacha’s corrupt bhateejas (bribes, in other words). Indeed, if one were to hear their prayers, they only ask to be left alone. They want NOTHING from The Chacha State, not even cheap credit. They just want to be left free to earn their keep in our urban markets. We must heed this prayer. They must be granted Liberty.
And they need titles to their urban and rural properties. Millions are stuck in rural poverty because they have no titles to their lands, and so must occupy and guard them personally. The landless who migrate to cities for better opportunities fare no better when it comes to clear titles to their urban dwellings. While I was in New Delhi, the papers reported that Chacha was demolishing slums – in this bitter cold.
My talks with Bablu Das, “property dealer without property,” and his neighbours revealed that they possess all kinds of identity and address proofs. They have ration cards, voter ID cards, electricity and gas connections – but no titles. It is titles they need – not another ID card. This UID project is in the interests of The Chacha State and its State Police. Ultimately it is not in the interests of the poor.
The editors mention what is wrong with our “social welfare” programmes these days:
“Today there are well off persons who are part of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. State governments, that actually implement most such schemes, simply have no wherewithal to monitor them. Various departments and agencies of these governments are handed money and it then disappears. The truth only surfaces years, if not decades, later in the reports of the public accounts committees or those of the state auditor generals. The poor remain what they always have been—poor. When the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said the poor don’t even get 15 paise of every rupee spent on them, this is what he meant.”
I would say CLOSE DOWN ALL THESE WASTEFUL EXPENDITURES.
Invest all the money in roads – capital assets from which all can benefit. And then give the civilian administration just one task – property titles.
Say “No” to the UID.
That said, the main article in Mint today is also noteworthy – Manish Sabharwal’s call for an “eradication of India’s green jobs.” I recommend this read.
On the same subject, my reader is also recommended this interview with Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, in which he says that combating poverty is more important for poor countries than combating climate change.
Yeah. Bugger green jobs. Bugger climate change. Tackle poverty. This requires Economic Freedom, roads and urbanisation, and property titles.
Say no to the UID, which will only benefit the State Police (and sundry IT companies who are Chacha’s latest chamchas).
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