CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS: UPLIFTING
INDIA
In spite of the various
redistributive programs by our government on poverty, most of them have been
relatively ineffective, as the benefits don’t reach to the poor. Year
by year the number of poor had remained the same, though the proportion has
fallen. Corruption and lack of informative sources are taking poor’s money in babu’s account. Being an
emerging market economy India should seriously consider new form of social
assistance to reach the poorest of population. The Conditional Cash Transfer
(CCT) provides an innovative approach to tackle poverty and heal people in BPL
list.
CCT
schemes provide cash directly to poor households in response to the households
fulfilling specific conditions. As an example, if our college promises to give
100 rupee note on full week attendance, they are making a CCT. In similar ways,
government can enhance consumption of merit goods like health and education by
setting certain condition.
The
concept of CCT schemes originated in Latin American countries when the demand
for social services such as education and health from poorer households was
perceived to have declined drastically. The implication of schemes enhanced the
consumption of merit goods. Later on other Asian
and African countries implemented related schemes. Some of them were
appreciated worldwide like ‘Bolsa Familia’(2003) – BRAZIL :
to alleviate the income deprivation of poor households; Child Support
Grant(1998) – SOUTH
AFRICA : to contribute to the cost of raising children in poor households. ‘Food for Education’ (1993) - BANGLADESH:
providing monthly free rice and wheat rations to poor households to encourage
children to attend schools.
But making schemes is not enough when the
matter is about poorest part of population. The hand to hand transfers always
pivot money to greedy hands. Three
minimum requirements for CCT to work successfully :
1. The CCTs should target
the BPL population.
2. A successful CCT require
a biometric identification system to ensure the correct beneficiaries. This is
being done through the Unique Identification Code (UID) ‘AADHAR’ scheme.
3. With a large population
under a scheme, huge network of post-offices and banks should be established. ‘Jan Dhan Yojna’ and ‘NAREGA’ helped a lot in opening
BPL accounts.
In India few CCT schemes have been already implemented.
The orientation in Indian schemes is more towards the individual but the Latin
American implementation were beneficiary for households. The schemes started by
Indian government have typically been used to improve school attendance by
children, boosted attendance at health clinics and enhance participation in
immunization programs.
Some conditional national schemes:
Kasturba Gandhi Balika
Vidyalaya Schemes (2004): to reduce dropout and to promote the enrollment of
girl child in secondary schools and ensure their retention till they reach 19
years. Rs 3,000 will be given as one time deposit with a condition of girl to
be unmarried till 18-year.
Janani Suraksha Yojna (2005)- It was introduced
to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality with assistance package of Rs 700 to
mother in rural/urban areas to BPL families with a condition of Institutional
delivery.
Dhanalaxmi (2008) - A CCT approach to
save the girl child with insurance cover of Rs 1,00,000 from LIC. The cash
transfers are provided to the mother of girl child on fulfilling the condition
of submitting birth registration, progress of immunization, enrollment in
school .
In the above cases government had implemented schemes wisely by setting
conditions for consumption of merit goods as better clinical and school
attendance in rural/urban parts were reported countrywide.
Moreover,
few CCTs like Minimum Income Guarantee to fix income in households with single
women, disables, old aged ones to overcome their disabilities could be
introduced. CCTs could be introduced in agriculture sector and food sector to
ensure the prevention of agriculture products from black marketing and maximum
utilization of grains.
MADHURESH MADHUKAR
Economics Honors
SHYAMLAL COLLEGE, SHAHDRA, DELHI
DELHI UNIVERSITY
