Spreading And Strengthening Economic Gains Equitably Can Help Achieve Viksit Bharat

Blaming the Opposition for using it as a political tool, the Centre has in a turnaround now decided to include a caste census in the forthcoming national census. The decision, as per the Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment: “will strengthen the social and economic structure of our society while the nation continues to progress.”

While I will not go into the political dimension, it certainly is a “historic decision”. There is no denying that caste has been and remains at the heart of Indian politics. Ever since I grew up, the question that bothered me was while as students we were told to shun the caste system and look at everyone through the prism of equality; at every election the caste divide becomes so loud and apparent. Not that the caste census will put an end to this divide but at least it will ensure that the marginalised get an equal share of the economic pie.

Let us hope the goal eventually is to bring parity between the glaring economic divide among the innumerable number of castes. According to a recent report in Dainik Bhaskar, in the last census that took place in 2011, around 46 lakh castes were counted. Most of these were unverified. This time, of course, reports say that the government is likely to ensure ‘transparency’ meaning ensuring proper verification and authentication of the castes spelled out. The task therefore is enormous and as we all know it isn’t going to as easy as we think.

Nevertheless, it is a step in the right direction.

Last year, while campaigning for the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said, “don’t think caste census survey is just a caste survey...we will add economic and institutional surveys too.” That is where the issue of redistribution of wealth had cropped in, a fact vehemently opposed by the urban elite. Even as the debate ranged, my argument was that it was absolutely essential to know which particular caste had amassed bulk of the national wealth and assets, and why it was important to ensure that those who were left out historically need to be brought in.

Development has to be beneficial for all, not only benefitting the well-to-do at the top of the spectrum. The rich continue to amass wealth, backed by appropriate policies, while the poor are driven to the wall. This anomaly had to end, the sooner the better.

A caste census will help point to the numbers and therefore enable the government to know where to put in adequate resources.

Nowhere is the caste configuration as blatantly visible as in agriculture. While the demand for quotas for government jobs is obviously from the minority who have managed to acquire some education and skills, a majority of dalits and OBCs continue to slog as marginal and landless farmers and/or work as farm labourers. With farm incomes remaining at the bottom of the pyramid, hovering around Rs 10,000 per farm family, it isn’t unusual to find a significant concentration of the lower castes, in farming or as landless workers. Linked to this is the population living below the poverty line, and that includes in the urban areas, living in shanties.

While the political effort would be to seek job quotas for the dominant section of the marginalised communities, it is the huge proportion of marginalised populations that remain engaged in farming that I fear would be left out. While there may be better ideas that I am not aware of so to reach out to these communities which are bereft of a living dole, and thereby somehow surviving along the margins; the best way to reach out to this class, which lies abandoned for all practical purposes, is to rethink the budgeting norms. They can’t be left to live perpetually on 5 kg free ration.

The upper class will definitely offer resistance but given the political and academic backing, it surely is possible to bring about the necessary change. If a turnaround in caste census can take place, despite all kinds of names being called for those who backed it, redesigning the budget and convincing the nation, a bigger need for a shift in economic thinking and roadmap, remains challenging but is surely not that difficult. Let me explain how it is possible.

Instead of going for more of the same, the Vajpayee government in its first tenure in 1996 had announced that it would allocate 60 per cent of the budget for 60 per cent of the population engaged in agriculture. This announcement too was met with a lot of resistance, but the fundamental thrust of the shift in economic thought, was actually to ensure that the budgetary provisions are equally distributed.

I vividly recall how my suggestion, in a closed door meeting of economists and experts, had led to the call for allocating 60 per cent budget for 60 per cent population. This was opposed by economists who were keen on controlling the fiscal deficit and current account deficit as the pathway to growth and development. My argument was that if the objective of any government was to ensure that it doesn’t have to face anti-incumbency, there is no other way rather than redistributing the financial resources equitably.

The tragedy, however, was that Vajpayee’s government last only 13 days.

Since nearly 50 per cent of the country’s population remains engaged in agriculture, directly or indirectly, the farm sector alone has the largest representation of the castes configurations that are likely to be measured by way of a caste census. The best way to reach out such a large proportion of the population is to rebuild agriculture and allied sectors. This in turn will revitalise the rural economy, forming the backbone of the country. In any case, what policy makers need to know is that in a country where as many as 70 per cent of the rural household are dependent on agriculture; the annual budgetary allocation is just 3 per cent of the total budget.

This is not only economically unjustified, but is a gross distortion of a fair distribution of financial resources. At some stage, policy makers will have to think of redesigning the economy. In years to come, once the caste census is complete, the economic thought process must focus on attaining inclusive growth.

It may upset the current growth paradigm, but somehow the policy thrust should be to take the entire country along rather than leave growth to the top 10 per cent of the population.

The nation certainly needs to progress but spreading and strengthening the economic gains equitably should be the new module for becoming truly a Viksit Bharat by 2047.

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an expert on issues related to the agriculture sector. He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)