Vol. 11, Issue : 4,5
April, May 2019
NYAY: Another Pipe Dream Scheme
As a run up to the Lok Sabha elections, Modi’s
government announced in the last budget an input
support of Rs. 6000 per year to the farmers having
a land up to 5 acres. The government of Telangana
statea implemented such a scheme before the
assembly elections, while the government of AP and
some other states announced additional amount
over that of centre’s scheme.
As a part of the election campaign, the Congress
party vowed to implement Nyuntam Aay Yojana
(NYAY) if voted to power. Its leader Rahul Gandhi
asserted that NYAY would be the final assault on
poverty in the country. Under the scheme, Rs. 72,000
will be transferred annually into the bank accounts
of a fifth of the poorest families in the country (abour
5 crore families).
The basis of these two schemes is the concept
of Universal Basic Income that should be given
directly to the beneficiary. Many reputed economists
in India are praising the NYAY as a welfare agenda
that guarantees a minimum income to the poor. They
are arguing that it should be treated as a social
security and as a constitutional right rather than as
a dole or election promise.
An intense discussion is going on about
affordability and implementability of NYAY. Rahul
Gandhi said that his party had consulted big
economists including Raghuram Rajan who
concurred that it is doable scheme. But many think
that NYAY is financially unviable as it requires Rs.
3.6 lakh crore annually. Prof. Jayati Ghosh said the
scheme can trigger social tension and was difficult
to implement. One reputed economist argued that
the NYAY can be implemented provided various
subsidies were done away. The food subsidy,
fertilizer subsidy, petroleum subsidy, expenditure on
MNREGA, SC and ST welfare and Awas Yojana etc.
comes to a total of Rs five lakh crores. So by
stopping these welfare schemes, NYAY can be
implemented successfully. Yet nobody brought into
the discussion Rs 6 lakh crore subsidies being
handed out to the big bourgeoisie every year. This
debate is an indicator of what is going to happen
tomorrow.
In a country where income disparity is growing
at alarming rate for the last seven decades and the
poverty and misery of the vast masses of people
reached to unbearable proportion. The need for a
poverty alleviation or eradication programme is
unquestionable. The pertinent question is how to
do it. The past experience indicates that every
poverty eradication programme taken up by the
governments at various times had failed in achieving
the objective.
During the British colonial rule, providing wage
employment during times of distress such as drought
and floods was used as a relief, It was continued in
the early decades after the transfer of power.
A debate took place in late 1960s which stressed
on the creation of assets to provide a constant and
recurring income as a poverty eradication
programme in the place of wage employment. This
was followed by the slogan Garibi Hatao and Indira
Gandhi’s 20-point programme. Under this
programme, the beneficiaries were provided with
goats, buffalos, cows etc, so as the beneficiaries
would earn income by rearing these animals. After
a decade the then Planning Commission
Organ of the Central Committee of CPI(ML)