POVERTY REDUCTION AND HEALTHY CONSUMERISM THROUGH EDUCATION

ABSTRACT
Healthy consumerism requires primarily an inclusive and educated society where an environment for economic renewal exists. Such societies are also the best equipped to increase the size of their economic cake and thus reduce developmental inequalities among various sections of their population. This is a process catalyzed by modern man’s basic requirement, namely education. Education empowers, enables, helps remove barriers, and brings about social inclusiveness that is the basic strand of any healthy economy, more so of a developing one like ours that espouses unity in diversity. Education, even elementary will enable the rural millions to have a stake in the running of our country by making them literate, numerate and aware of their rights and make our democracy truly representative. Education is the first step to take in the journey away from the fetters of poverty.


THE EVERPRESENT EXCUSE
Poverty as an excuse has been repeatedly used by the polity of our country to impede progress in our country. There have been instances when sound developmental ideas have been put to premature rest or delayed start in the name of poverty. Thus, India despite having adequate man power and brain power lags behind other countries of the world in infrastructure such as good roads, good airports, good energy (electricity) supply, and good irrigation …the list can be quite exhaustive.

GARIBI HATAO
Direct attacks on poverty in the form of various schemes and yojanas up till now have not yielded the desired results with even the most well intentioned schemes reaching just 25% of the intended target population. Even the recent Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) which has been promoted by the present Government is mired in controversies; the district collector of Sholapur, Manisha Varma unearthed a Rs. 9.1 crore EGS scam which had its origin in an unusually high labour attendance figure of 1 lakh! Following her exposure she was transferred to a harmless post where her pro-active approach would not cause any harm; but thanks to the workings of bipartisan governance, Varma’s transfer was stayed and the Government had to act! The rot is clearly systemic and right up to the top, in such an atmosphere is there any reason to believe that this scheme too like its predecessors shall not fail? Surprisingly when commonsense and experience reinforce chances of failure there are voices which appear to think otherwise. According to Jean Dreze, economist and former member of the National Advisory Council, Government of India who authored this scheme, “The fear of corruption can be no excuse not to attempt and help the poor live with dignity". Economist Ashutosh Varshney suggests that direct attacks on poverty did not succeed in India in the past because India had low growth rates of around 3.5 even up to the late 70’s. Mr. Varshney feels that with enhanced GDP of 6% and over in recent years there is no reason why such an approach should not succeed.

REASONS FOR PESSIMISM
There are many pitfalls in applied economics and it is possible that Mr. Varshney may be correct. But, these are the reasons which will most likely spell doom for the EGS: -
• 80% of farm holdings in rural India are small and therefore economically unviable. This means 80% of the farm holders are forced to work on other farms to make ends meet. However, this employment is inconsistent and dependent on the vagaries of weather. Annually about 100 districts face droughts and nearly 90 districts are hit by floods resulting in non-availability of even seasonal employment in nearly 200 of the 593 districts in the country. And those who do manage to get seasonal jobs are employed for 65-100 days in a year. The EGS has its primary focus on 25% of the rural landless. But in reality even the plight of these small farm holders as well needs to be addressed.
• Lack of transparency and corruption. Dreze suggests that this problem can be addressed by the recently promulgated Right to Information (RTI) Act and grassroots activism. Mr. Bimal Jalan, the former Governor of Reserve Bank and now a Rajya Sabha MP suggests that "The Government should appoint a minister exclusively to monitor the implementation of the Act."
• India may have progressed from Hindu rate of Growth to around 7% GDP annually; but this was possible due to the successful implementation of the first phase of reforms in the nineties, the fruits of which we are reaping today. The present political set-up burdened as it is under the pressure of antiquated dogmatism is stalling reforms and in such circumstances, ripping away our GDP growth in sponsoring such a never ending corrupt crevasse would be to the detriment of India’s prospects.

TOOLS WITHOUT USERS
Grass roots activism and a beneficial use of the RTI to bring about transparency require education, the lack of which is a big problem particularly in rural India. India’s poverty is directly connected with illiteracy and social exclusion which are reflected in her pervasive problems such as caste and gender discrimination. Education and education alone can be the solution to India’s struggle with poverty. Education empowers, breaks down barriers, and encourages inclusiveness. The simplest and best examples of this are our metro cities where easy access to education has played no small part in fostering a cosmopolitan and inclusive atmosphere where service industries that are powering the IT boom thrive. The rural to urban migration is mostly about movement towards these metro cities where opportunities of all types lie. The EGS is right in its intent but there is a good chance that the whole effort could go down the drain as just another populist effort due to its inherent flaws.

THE LONG-TERM IMPACT OF RURAL EDUCATION
India’s progress depends directly on making her millions in the rural areas literate and numerate, elementary education requires even stronger attention. It does not require a think tank to figure out that this will then create a class of people who will be employable in the near future when a better political dispensation will accelerate the next phase of reforms that will enable India in addition to being a global IT power, to be the manufacturing capital of the world as well. Additionally rural education will also contribute towards better health care and hygiene in our country side; the often seen tableau of, emaciated faces and begging children in our cities which are really a reflection of our rural poor will than become a rarity. The money invested in direct attacks on poverty would be well spent if invested in rural education instead.

The potential to be unlocked by way of good policy decisions and investment in rural education has the long-term and lasting power to transform India into an advanced country and more importantly a country with a good Human Development Index where gender inequality, caste discrimination will be a thing of the past.
- Dr. V. R. Shenoy