Scheduled castes got a "raw deal" under Govt of India credit schemes: Economists

By Our Representative
In a detailed presentation before a seminar in Delhi in front of civil rights and Left-wing politicians, two senior economists with the Transdisciplinary Research Cluster on Sustainability Studies (TRCSS), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Dinesh Abrol and Rollins John have said that the Government of India’s (GoI’s) credit schemes meant for the country’s marginalized communities, as also minorities and women, have failed to take off.
Called “Development for All? Assessing the Pattern of Financing under Modi Government”, and presentation at the Constitution Club in Delhi on March 15, said, quoting the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, that schemes like Shilpi Samridhi Yojana (SSY), MahilaKishan Yojana (MKY), Nari Arthik Sashaktikaran Yojana (NASY), Green Business Scheme and Vocational Education and Training Loan Scheme (VETLS), meant especially for socio-economic development of Double the Poverty Line (DPL) Scheduled Castes (SCs), have “failed to receive” the necessary support from GoI.
According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, GoI, persons whose family income is below Rs 20,000 per annum in rural areas and Rs 27,500 per annum in urban areas are considered to be below poverty line (BPL), and those whose family income is below Rs 40,000 per annum in rural areas and Rs.55,000 per annum in urban areas respectively are considered to DPL.
Analyzing the performance of the National Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC), the presentation said, “The committee noted with complete dismay the extremely poor performance of all of these schemes. Even the quantum of assistance provided by the corporation in the range from up to Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 30 lakh is not being disbursed.”
Thus, there were “no beneficiaries” at all under NASY, while under VETLS also, except for 21 beneficiaries in 2016-17, there were no beneficiaries for the last five years. “The same is the case with Green Business Scheme with 40 and 20 beneficiaries in 2016-17 and 2017-18 having 1265 beneficiaries in total four years”, Abrol and John say, adding, “Even under Shilpi Samridhi Yojana there are mere 324 beneficiaries in the last five years.”
As for the Mahila Kisan Yojana, which is exclusively meant for SC women beneficiaries under DPL for income generating ventures in agriculture and/or mixed farming related economic activities, they say, there were “only 915 beneficiaries” in the last five years, say Abrol and John, wondering, why at all was the scheme introduced in, even though “very few women, that too under DPL category, have land ownership rights.”

Quoting from the report of the Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment, Abrol and John say, three micro-credit schemes, Micro-Credit Finance (MCF), Mahila Samridhi Yojana (MSY) and Ajeevika Micro-finance Yojana (AMY) “are underfinanced by NSFDC for income generating activities for SCs living below Double the Poverty Line. For instance, in the year 2016-17 Rs 29.16 crore was disbursed by NSFDC to State Channelising Agencies (SCAs) and the number of beneficiaries was 7,267.
Further pointing out that SCAs utilised only 5.39 per cent of the allocated funds in the Scheme in 2017-18, the economists say, “SCAs of NSFDC utilized only 50.70, 43.10 and 59.96 per cent of the allocated amount during the year 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18, respectively under Mahila Samridhi Yojana.”
In fact, economists say, there were no beneficiaries under this scheme in 2016-17 and only 394 beneficiaries in 2017-18. Further, total number of beneficiaries since introduction of this scheme was only 486 till the end of last financial year i.e. 2017-18, which is nothing keeping in mind the population of the target group. And after September, 2017 there was no progress in the number of beneficiaries which remained the same, i.e. 394, till March, 2018.

Comments

'Blatant violation' of law by Central government in making NREGA payments

By Our Representative In September third week, NREGA workers across the country were mobilised for two day so raise their issues and submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister. Organised the NREGA Sangharsh Morcha (NSM), a collective of groups that work with NREGA labourers across the country, workers from 13 states -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal -- carried out Kaam Do Abhiyaan, staging demonstrations and rallies against what they called blatant violation of law by the Central government in making NREGA payments. While NREGA has had very positive impacts, it has lately become fruitless, exploiting labour, even though workers who have put in honest hard work have to wait for their wages endlessly, it was suggested. In such a situation, there is a need to firm up NREGA implementation and end systematic corruption to ensure that workers get their basic NREGA entit

Fascism on prowl? Religious meet 'deeply pained' at silence of Church, bishops, priests

Counterview Desk The ‘Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace’which held its 17th National Convention at the Montfort Social Institute, Hyderabad, Telangana from 22 to 24 September 2022 on the theme “Deepening our Identity as Religious: Responding to the Signs of the Times”, has expressed concern “at the deteriorating situation of our nation on every front”, especially stating, “Fascism seems to have come to stay” in India. At the same time, the convention, which took place with the participation of 60 persons from 16 states representing 20 religious congregations, in its unanimously-adopted statement added, “We have reached abysmal depths on every parameter: be it social, economic and political”, underlining, “The poor in India become poorer every day; the rich and powerful continue to profiteer at their expense and amass scandalous amounts of wealth.” Text: We, members (63 women and men Religious, from 16 states representing 20 Congregations) of the Forum of Religious for Justice

Muslim intellectuals met Bhagwat, extra-constitutional authority 'like Sanjay Gandhi'

By Shamsul Islam* In a significant development a delegation of five Muslim intellectuals namely former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi; former senior bureaucrat Najeeb Jung; former AMU vice-chancellor and Lt Gen (retd) Zameer U Shah; politician-cum-journalist Shahid Siddiqui (presently with RLD); and businessman Saeed Shervani [Samajvadi Party] met RSS Supremo Mohan Bhagwat at RSS Delhi headquarters. The meeting was kept secret for reasons known to the participants and was held in August. According to the Muslim intellectuals the meeting held in “a very cordial” atmosphere continued for 75 minutes whereas time allotted was 30 minutes! In a post-meeting justification of the parleys Quraishi stated that their main concern was “the insecurity being increasingly felt by the Muslim community in the wake of recurring incidents of lynching of innocents, calls by Hindutva hotheads for genocide and the marginalisation of the community in almost every sphere”. This delegation consistin

Whither Govt of India strategy to reduce import dependence on crude oil, natural gas?

By NS Venkataraman* India presently imports around 80% of it’s crude oil requirement and around 50% of its natural gas requirements . As the domestic production of crude oil and natural gas are virtually stagnant and the domestic demand is increasing at around 7% per annum, India’s steadily increasing dependence on import of the vital energy source is a matter of high energy security concern. This is particularly so, since the price of crude oil and natural gas are considerably fluctuating / increasing in the global market due to geo political factors, which are beyond the control of India. India has promised to achieve zero emission by the year 2070, which mean that the level of emission has to start declining at slow and steady rate from now onwards. It is now well recognized that global emission is caused largely due to use of coal as fuel and natural gas as fuel and feedstock. While burning of coal as fuel cause emission of global warming carbon dioxide gas and sulphur

Rajasthan cops 'halt' Gujarat Dalit women's rally: homage to untouchability victim boy

By Our Representative In a surprise move, the Rajasthan police stopped a Dalit women's rally from Gujarat on the borders after it crossed Gujarat alleging that it would "disturb peace" in village Surana, Jalore district, where the gruesome incident of death of a Dalit boy took place on August 13 after he was brutally beaten up by his teacher on touching the drinking water pot. Sources said, while the Gujarat government had "no objection" in allowing the rally, which originated from the Dalit Shakti Kendra (DSK), an empowerment-cut-technical institute for teens founded by human rights leader Martin Macwan, on September 24 morning, the Rajasthan police stopped it for two and a half hours before allowing it to proceed to Surana. The decision to take out a women's rally was taken at a DSK meeting on September 5 following a condolence meeting of the NGO Navsarjan Trust, also founded by Macwan, activists committed to work against caste-based discrimination, orga

Why Bose's India Gate statue suggests RSS, BJP need violence-loving ‘Hindu’ Netaji

By Prem Singh* In a TV channel debate, a BJP spokesperson and anchor shared and served a lie that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's daughter in her letter to the Prime Minister has alleged that the Congress kept devaluing Netaji to further Gandhi's non-violence; because Netaji had taken the path of liberating the country through violence mode by forming the Azad Hind Fauj (INA). They also praised the Bombay Royal Naval Mutiny of 1946 to confirm that the country got its independence through a violent route. I stated that I have read the letter of Netaji's daughter, and there is no such allegation in it. But a lie told in the intoxication of power is bound to be blatant. Netaji's daughter Anita Bose Pfaff, even in the past, has already requested some earlier prime ministers of the country to bring back the mortal remains of her father from Japan to India. In none of the letters she has spoken about devaluation of her father’s role in the freedom movement on the basis of Gandh

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Is coal import dependence of more than 50% by 2047 of any relevance to India?

By Shankar Sharma* I have read the article " Building Resilience in India’s Power Sector " by N Vedachalam, released by the Observer Research Foundation, with a lot of interest. I expected it to provide few useful recommendations to our authorities in charting out a sustainable pathway to green energy transition much before the climate catastrophe push our communities to the precipice. But I am sorry to say that the overall discussions or the message implied in the article disappointed me. I was expecting the article, coming from an engineer with past experience in the power sector, to discuss the much needed recommendations to put the power sector on a sustainable developmental pathway. But I could notice mostly technical jargon and a lot of statistical information, which may already be available in the public domain. The article also seems to have simply accepted what some of the official agencies seem to have indicated as inevitable for the power sector in our country;

'True decolonisation move': Demand to name new Parliament building after Ambedkar

By Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd* In recent weeks, there has been a demand for the new Parliament building being constructed on the revamped Central Vista in New Delhi to be named after the architect of the Constitution and anti-caste leader BR Ambedkar. On September 14, the Telangana Assembly passed a resolution urging the Centre to name the new Parliament building after Ambedkar. The Bharatiya Janata Party was absent during the debate about the resolution. The next day, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi-led government declared that the new secretariat in the centre of Hyderabad would be named after Ambedkar. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao added that he would write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to name the new Parliament building in Delhi “Ambedkar Parliament”. The demand is finding resonance among civil society groups too and has led to social media discussions as well as public mobilisation. But two questions arise: Should a Parliament that makes laws for a nation over a

Government 'fails to take up' Indian migrants' unpaid wages issue with other countries

By Rafeek Ravuther, Chandan Kumar, Dharmendra Kumar* The migrant workers were one of the most vulnerable sections during the pandemic. India experiences large-scale movement of migrants internally and internationally. After the outbreak of the pandemic, migrant workers continued to face injustice especially in getting wages in expedited manner. In the international context, India, the home of 9 million cross-border temporary labour migrants, carried out the largest repatriation exercise ‘Vande Bharat Mission’. Even though the Indian government addressed the immediate requirement of repatriation, it failed to understand and recognise their post-arrival grievances, like back wages, social protection etc. Recently many workers were deported from the middle- east region. Amidst the establishment of grievance mechanisms such as Consular Services Management System (MADAD) and helplines in Pravasi Bharatiya Sahayata Kendra (PBSK), the unresolved grievances remain high. The number of unresolv

Counterview

Search This Blog