Atmanirbhar Bharat Package-Part 3- Relief to the Daridra Narayan –Poor, Migrants & Farmers

 

Gandhiji had said that the future of India lies in its villages. Further explaining it he said, “I would say that if the perishes India will perish too. India will be no more India. Her own mission in the world will get lost”. But unfortunately the USSR influenced development model adopted in the post-independence era not only side lined the villages but also led to its exploitation. The lack of investments in agriculture pushed it in the vicious circle of poverty leading to large scale migration to urban areas. This not only exerted undue pressure on the urban areas but turned them into factories of earning livelihood at the cost of severely compromising with the quality of life. The census 2011 had noted a 68% of rural population with a decrease of 4% – 5 % as compared to the previous census. Today the rapid urbanization engulfing almost the entire country this rate must have gone down somewhere around 60%.

 

With the rapid rise of unplanned cities and towns, the quality of life in these areas has further deteriorated. The urban areas look upon and use the migrants from the rural areas merely as ‘resources’. Rather than ‘assimilating’ the migrant class it just ‘adjusts’ it. With no system in place to record, settle and monitor the migrants, they are left at the mercy of the ‘market’ and are forced to live on a ‘self –sustaining mode’. The COVID 19 has big time exposed this systemic failure. With the announcement of Lockdown, the initial one month or so went on smoothly with every migrant staying where he / she was. Lot of support in the form of food, ration, medicines, etc. started pouring through government as well as non-governmental sources. Things were settling down with a new temporary normal.

 

But with announcement of the phase 2 of the lockdown, it started going out of hand. With all the economic activities coming to a standstill, the incomes of these migrants, most of whom were daily wage earners, suddenly stopped. With no income and the daily expenses for housing, food, medication, etc. refusing to freeze, it was no longer viable for the migrants to stay in their ‘cities of dream’. There was fear of the migrants being pushed into extreme poverty or Daridrya, as it is known in Sanskrit and many vernacular languages of India. To catalyse the process some vested interest groups started spreading the rumours that the situation is not going to improve any soon. As a result thousands and lakhs of migrants started their backward journeys to their villages. They adopted any and every means of transport from trains, to trucks, to buses, to bicycles and many even walked thousands of kilometres. The fear of getting infected, loss of livelihood and some kind of discouragement to stay in cities forced them back home. The Migrants suddenly became Dairdri – the poor and misfortune. Thus the situation demanded an immediate and concrete solution.

 

The Finance Minister tried to step in and announced a set of interventions on day three of the announcement of the Atmanirbhar Package by the Prime Minister. This segment was focused on the farmers, the migrants and the poor i.e. the Daridri. But Swami Vivekanand, the great visionary monk of India had shown the path of revival of the then fallen India by giving the mantra ‘Daridri devo bhava’ (Let the poor be your god). He even called the poor and the down trodden as Daridra Narayan i.e God in the form of poor and downtrodden and ordered India to serve them.

 

With the same spirit the third package seems to be targeting this Daridra Narayan. Firstly, the three month moratorium on agriculture loans worth Rs. 4.22 Lakh Crore benefitted 3 crore farmers. It immediately eased their pressure of loan repayment. Along with it, Interest subvention & Prompt Repayment Incentive on crop loans which were due on 1st March 2020 were extended upto 31st May. This allowed the farmers to sell their Rabi produce in the market and then with the liquidity in hands repay the loans, so that they become eligible for crop loans for the coming kharif season. Secondly, 25 lakh new Kisan Credit Cards were sanctioned with a loan limit of Rs. 25,000 crore. This injected the much needed liquidity in the hands of the farmers to prepare for the forthcoming sowing activity.

 

63 Lakh fresh loans worth Rs. 86,600 crore were approved in the months of March & April 2020. This not only injected the much needed liquidity in the rural economy but also gaveit a boost. With the refinancing of Rs. 29,500 crore by NABARD to the cooperative banks and Regional Rural Banks, the last mile financial connectivity to the farmers was strengthened. A support of Rs. 4,200 crore under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund given to the states, the rural infrastructure also got a boost. In order to speed up the process of government procurement of agriculture produce and transfer liquidity to the farmer, a working capital limit of Rs.6,700 crore was sanctioned to the State Government entities since March 2020. These steps would not only have an immediate impact by injection of liquidity in the hands of the farmers but will also ensure that the kharif output of 2020 is not affected due to the pandemic. It will go a long way in ensuring speedy recovery of the economy post COVID19.

 

The states were not only permitted to utilize the SDRF for creating shelters for the migrants but also to provide food and other help to them. A whopping fund of Rs. 11,002 crore was released to the states in advance. Self Help Groups (SHGs) were formed and empowered to increase incomes of their members. These SHGs did a commendable job not only in providing relief to the farmers but also produced lakhs of face masks and lakhs of litres of sanitizer. The MGNREGS scheme was strengthened with increased wage rate and increased actual expenditure and thus helped the returning migrants by providing them gainful employment in their villages. Direct help in form of free ration for two months was provided to even people not covered under the Food Security Act or the State PDS. Almost 8 crore migrants are expected to benefit from this provision, which is fully funded by the Central government. The National portability of PDS can be claimed as revolutionary step even during the time of this crisis.

 

Apart from these Affordable Rental Housing Complex for migrants & Urban poor, Rs. 1500 crore Interest subvention for MUDRA – Shishu Loans, Rs. 5000 crore special credit facility for street vendors, Utilization of Rs. 6000 crore of CAMPA funds for employment generation, Rs. 30,000 crore Additional Emergency Working Capital funding for farmers through NABARD are some other measures which are directed to help & revive the ‘Daridra Narayan’ of this nation. These steps by the Prime Minister and the Central Government are truly a depiction of his vision of ‘Jaan bhi aur jahan bhi’!