This is extract from a paper I had written a year ago but could do little progress for publishing it.. though its right time to think on these lines mentioned hereunder;
What are the constraints we are facing when it comes to economic reforms verses the tribal development? Following are some of the points we would like to highlight;
1. The budget- ‘Provisional tribal development’
The pressure from the elites and powerful lobbies to attract funds already to the developed and progressive regions are immense. Even if the state governments like Gujarat and Maharashtra are cash rich in development expenditure in the industrial regions, they pay only lip service in the tribal areas. One wonders what makes these states to restrict their expenditure so low in the tribal regions on the basic amenities like Hospitals and schools. For the state might be spending more than Rs. 500 crores on the education and health in Gujarat, the share of this budget in the tribal districts of the Dangs, Valsad, Surat, Dahod, Panchamahal etc would be well below 10% of this amount. Tribals are not part of the structural adjustments process of the World Bank initiated reforms in the country. The tribals had to mend their business in absence of the strong leadership to claim their share of budgetary provisions. The reform initiated by the earlier NDA government and present continuation of reform under the UPA Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, there is clear need to focus on the tribal welfare.
2. Sector Constraints – Health and Education
The health and education though given importance during the last budget session by Government of India, it is yet to be accepted by the respective state governments. The sense of urgency is lacking- and so is the penetration of facilities in rural area. The beneficiaries of private education and health facilities have been restricted to mainly urban or most often to the peri-urban areas (due to tax concessions). The education institutions run by trusts are not capable of providing quality education in absence of basic structural reform. The tax concessions to the education and health institutions should be extended to the tribal regions to allow benefits of quality education and health infrastructure. With limitation on their ability to access equity and commercial financing, these institutions remain dependent on donations, and subsidies as the norm, rather than balancing or incremental requirement.
3. Fragmentation
In the country like ours, we have innumerous school boards giving multiple- course platform to the students. The tribals have no choice to get quality or mainstream education given the high cost of admission. The differential treatment of the course content by the different board results in the variable education standards in the country. The most of the urban and well to do families can afford to provide the best of education facilities to the children, whereas the tribals need to depend on the poorly managed ashram shalas. Why can’t we come out to provide similar quality education to tribal children’s in their own regions? We must now make effort to define a national curriculum that balances regional aspirations.
4. Lack of Planning
One of the important aspects of the concern we feel is related to the lack of planning on the resources and capabilities needed. There has been less focus on tribal sub plans during the post 1990s with the advent of the reforms. We are not focusing on the future vocational training requirements of the tribals in absence of the agricultural lands or massive displacement due to development projects. Most of the elite educational institutions are not in position to out reach to the tribal regions. Instead we have sets of sub standard institutions harping on the large population base with little stake on the welfare of the tribals. For Example, the prevalence of Medical and Engineering colleges and Universities in the remote areas just to tap new monetary freedom of tribals rather than providing quality infrastructure. We certainly require more robust reform structure in the sector to decentralize the education and health infrastructure without any prejudice.
5. Utilization of resources
While limited availability of resources is a common concern, the focus should be on sub-optimal utilization of allocated resources. To our mind, government is clearly not the most efficient manager of expenditure. The current framework provides enormous subsidies, with less than adequate measures to ensure that beneficiaries of the subsidiaries are only those who need them; additionally we must pay attention on how subsidy is directed towards the poorest of the poor. The tribal areas though rich in bio-diversity and natural resources, lack innovative thinking similar to the economic reform. Time has now ripe to concentrate on not only on the macro economic reform, but also on how to utilize the tribal resource in order to maximize the their welfare.
6. Thinking differently
Tribals also need to start thinking differently, even though they are given opportunity for the government job they have not been able to gather enough. This may be due to lack of educational and support environments in the tribal regions. The tribals are gaining their stake in monetary economy by getting exposure to the market reform through media. They need to ask for quality services rather than an alternative system of education and health. They can join themselves to mainstream not only politically, but also integrate their learning and knowledge to rest of population. The path forward can also be to use private intervention to help schools augment their capacities, and also inculcate the habit for paying for those who can pay for the quality services. There can be differential pricing mechanism for most of the basic quality services based on the paying capacities of the tribal societies.
7. Prioritization
If we can think of the communities being indirectly affected by the economic reform, the tribals would be last thought of group. There is lacuna in approach towards the development excluding the tribals and other deprived sections of society. The economic reforms encouraged privatization of the most of the services provided by the public sector. The private players in the new economy are not ready to accommodate the reality of India’s social life. The responsibility of the private towards the tribals and weaker sections needs to be highlighted. This prioritization of the beneficiaries of the economic reform should not negate the larger sentiments. The tribals do not need reservations in the jobs but rather holistic approach towards their concerns. The activities that makes them self-relients and also does not diminish their self respect.
8. Tribals as ‘Human Capital’
We cannot go ahead with economic reform without the suitable development of our human capital. Though India is proud to have more than 50 % population between 25-35 age group by now, we are yet to understand the tribal constitutes 20 % of such youngsters. The future India cannot neglect the tribal youth, thus becomes added responsibility to let them learn to participate in development. The success of mid day meal in the primary school provides such hope to the poor tribals community. The mid-day meal address the fundamental issues of nutrition, hygiene and health of the community in addition to education. The health of women similarly is to be improved in the tribal regions not only by introducing health pills but also bringing out proper nutrition programme for the lactating mothers and adult women. The employment opportunities for the women in the region should be associated with such nutrition programme equivalent to the mid-day meal. The food for work scheme of Government of India needs some innovation on these lines.
9. Scope for Economic reform for Tribals and Poorest of Poor
For one, any reform specific to the tribals or community would need massive decentralisation, a pushing through of the panchayati raj, giving the poor authority and accountability to determine their destinies. This means a paradigmatic shift in the power equation between the 3 layers of our federal system. Decentralisation is required not because it is morally right (it is so), but because it will increase efficiency and entrepreneurial energies (it has always done so). The detailing problems that we discussed earlier will be solved at the grassroot level, differently in tribal societies. Focus can shift to outcomes, rather than irrelevant input measurement. New service delivery arrangements in education and health can be experimented with, involving public-private partnerships. New, locally appropriate technology solutions should emerge. Mistakes that are made will be localized and relevant to the tribals, from which there will be learning and adaptation.
At another level, a new dynamic needs to emerge between the economic reform (banking, micro credit, employment, housing etc) and policy-makers who wish to align the powerful forces of the reforms towards the tribals and poor. One where there is freedom to function, with responsibility for equitable outcomes. What is required on the part of government is an innovative regulatory mechanism, like benchmarking the services delivery of the priority sector segment to the services, and demanding tribal region wise reporting in the state socio-economic reports. The critical learning is that programme design needs to be left to the marketplace, that the cost of doing business with the tribals/poor might be higher than with elite urban customer segments, and hence need to be priced differently. When institutions are allowed to do this, the market will fill the services vacuum. We need to move beyond simplistic ‘Krishi-melas’ and cultural bonanza for tribals. If one truly wanted to see “tribals” developed, it is on display in India, with all its warts, reinforcing the belief that country needs effective programs. But effective programs needs a supple and disciplined government, demanding self-regulation from states, coming down hard and fast when necessary for the interest of tribals.
So, when the new policies of this government are announced, let us look closely to see if there is any change in the microstructure of governance, in the improvement of tribal societies. Let us look to see whether these “reforms with a human face” can actually be called “ reform for tribal societies and poorest”.
If not, all these ideas will get choked in the thickets of the system, making our reforms look like our city water supply: ‘plenty flows in pipes, loses on the way and trickles at the consumer end.’
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