Freedom Postponed: Tales of Broken Promises
John Samuel
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom…..The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and the inequality of opportunity…. So long us there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over….”
Jawaharal Nehru, August 14, 1947
Dharavi Devi, wife of dalit rickshaw puller Lalubabu Paswan , a resident of Ambedkar Colony on the outskirts of Patna, sold her two months old son to a village nearby Patori for six thousand rupees. She used the money to repay her debt. She could not afford to provide medical care to her two-month old child who had fallen ill. Just a couple of months earlier, her other child, two year old Manish, had died as they could not get access to a hospital or doctor. By selling the two months old, Dharani hoped to give him a chance of survival. Her husband, Lalbabu Paswan, who used to earn around 50 rupees a day, is now unable to earn even that meager amount as he is suffering from TB. Neither Lalbabu could access the governments’ free TB treatment programme, nor could the family get covered by the government’s Below Poverty Line (BPL) food schemes. This story is reported in the Media on Sept 14, 2004, fifty seven years after we made the ‘tryst with destiny’ and India woken up to ‘life and freedom’. The story repeats every day, the names and places may change. But not the plight of Dharani Devi, Manish, Lalbabu and the nameless child. They are the ‘broken people’ of India. Millions of children dye in ‘free’ India. Millions go to bed hungry every day. Promises are broken, rights are violated and freedom gets postponed. Whose India is shining?
Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN at the dawn of the new Millennium does not make sense to the millions of poor people in India. When the right to live with dignity is denied to millions, Millennium Development Goals are a millions miles away from the poorest of the poor .So are the National Development Goals, envisaged by the tenth five year plan. In this land of unprecedented GDP growth and ever-growing military expenditure, promises to the poor are meant to be broken. Even after 30 years of ‘Garibi Hatao( banish poverty)’promise, the balance sheet of public policy in the country is littered with broken promises, unimplemented schemes and millions of Dharani Devis in the villages and streets of India. Election Manifestos and promises have become a part of the democracy rituals, to be kept in the deep freezer till the next election date.
When the policy makers are very effective in postponing the freedom from fear and freedom from want, the very preamble of the Constitution of India gets undermined. The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of the State policy of the Indian Constitution guarantee the freedom from fear , freedom from want, freedom of association and freedom of belief. The UN Declaration(1986) on the Right to Development clearly articulate development as a human rights, and further reiterate the fulfillment and realization of Economic, Social and Cultural(ESC) rights in realizing development and eradicating poverty.
With appropriate policies of taxation and reordering of expenditure priorities, there is no reason why substantial progress can not be achieved visa-a-vise a set of basic rights, such food and nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, shelter, primary health and basic education. The neglect of economic , social and cultural rights generally leads to increased resource burden for the state to maintain civil and political rights. This means spending on schools, hospitals, creating livelihood and poverty eradication may be the desirable option for any society to spend less on police and prisons.
The policy making process need to move away from a conventional and patronizing approach of the state rooted in the desirability of basic needs, which smacks charity, as if pro-poor policies are a favour done by the to poor and needy. The policy making process should move towards a rights based approach to development: all citizens must have a set of core entitlements which are justiciable and in whose provisioning the state must be held primarily accountable. Obstacles in the way of fulfilling such entitlement must be confronted, and efficient ways of meeting the necessary obligation ought to be explored on an ongoing basis. Such a policy making perspective demands citizens as active participants in development and claim holders , rather than passive beneficiaries of development hand outs.
John Samuel
At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom…..The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and the inequality of opportunity…. So long us there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over….”
Jawaharal Nehru, August 14, 1947
Dharavi Devi, wife of dalit rickshaw puller Lalubabu Paswan , a resident of Ambedkar Colony on the outskirts of Patna, sold her two months old son to a village nearby Patori for six thousand rupees. She used the money to repay her debt. She could not afford to provide medical care to her two-month old child who had fallen ill. Just a couple of months earlier, her other child, two year old Manish, had died as they could not get access to a hospital or doctor. By selling the two months old, Dharani hoped to give him a chance of survival. Her husband, Lalbabu Paswan, who used to earn around 50 rupees a day, is now unable to earn even that meager amount as he is suffering from TB. Neither Lalbabu could access the governments’ free TB treatment programme, nor could the family get covered by the government’s Below Poverty Line (BPL) food schemes. This story is reported in the Media on Sept 14, 2004, fifty seven years after we made the ‘tryst with destiny’ and India woken up to ‘life and freedom’. The story repeats every day, the names and places may change. But not the plight of Dharani Devi, Manish, Lalbabu and the nameless child. They are the ‘broken people’ of India. Millions of children dye in ‘free’ India. Millions go to bed hungry every day. Promises are broken, rights are violated and freedom gets postponed. Whose India is shining?
Millennium Declaration adopted by the UN at the dawn of the new Millennium does not make sense to the millions of poor people in India. When the right to live with dignity is denied to millions, Millennium Development Goals are a millions miles away from the poorest of the poor .So are the National Development Goals, envisaged by the tenth five year plan. In this land of unprecedented GDP growth and ever-growing military expenditure, promises to the poor are meant to be broken. Even after 30 years of ‘Garibi Hatao( banish poverty)’promise, the balance sheet of public policy in the country is littered with broken promises, unimplemented schemes and millions of Dharani Devis in the villages and streets of India. Election Manifestos and promises have become a part of the democracy rituals, to be kept in the deep freezer till the next election date.
When the policy makers are very effective in postponing the freedom from fear and freedom from want, the very preamble of the Constitution of India gets undermined. The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of the State policy of the Indian Constitution guarantee the freedom from fear , freedom from want, freedom of association and freedom of belief. The UN Declaration(1986) on the Right to Development clearly articulate development as a human rights, and further reiterate the fulfillment and realization of Economic, Social and Cultural(ESC) rights in realizing development and eradicating poverty.
With appropriate policies of taxation and reordering of expenditure priorities, there is no reason why substantial progress can not be achieved visa-a-vise a set of basic rights, such food and nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, shelter, primary health and basic education. The neglect of economic , social and cultural rights generally leads to increased resource burden for the state to maintain civil and political rights. This means spending on schools, hospitals, creating livelihood and poverty eradication may be the desirable option for any society to spend less on police and prisons.
The policy making process need to move away from a conventional and patronizing approach of the state rooted in the desirability of basic needs, which smacks charity, as if pro-poor policies are a favour done by the to poor and needy. The policy making process should move towards a rights based approach to development: all citizens must have a set of core entitlements which are justiciable and in whose provisioning the state must be held primarily accountable. Obstacles in the way of fulfilling such entitlement must be confronted, and efficient ways of meeting the necessary obligation ought to be explored on an ongoing basis. Such a policy making perspective demands citizens as active participants in development and claim holders , rather than passive beneficiaries of development hand outs.
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