Information

     People are ridiculing the Planning Commission's decision to set the 'poverty line' at Rs. 985 for urban and Rs. 751 for rural people.  So much so that people have demanded the methodology of calculation to be disclosed.

     For two reasons the Planning Commission should systematically disclose the method of coming to that cut-off ;

1. People have a right to information. Those deserving poor who are going to get left out from the welfare benefits because of this cut-off will have a direct grievance to be addressed by the government. 
2. The planners need to convey the constraints which compelled them to take such a decision. Such information published in the public domain will have supportive as well as critical comments. The point being that a process of collective thinking will bring us the advantage of many more of the ideas that could be implemented to come to a just and fair agreement. 

This may look like a Utopian way of solving the problem, but it is worth a try for the sake of those suffering the brunt of severe disparity in a fast growing economy run largely by the rich minority.
     

Information without literacy

      Earlier I used to think, when a certain critical number of Indians will become literate, we would then begin to see changes in people's lives. But overtime, having observed and worked among different communities I have realized that literacy is not a necessary element for empowerment. Information plays a bigger role and literacy is one way people can acquire information. Information seems to be at the core of a person realizing what he is worth, what he has a right to ask for, what he has a right to claim and what he should not tolerate. It follows then, that spreading information through means that do not require a community to be literate can lead to holding the authorities accountable for rendering justice to their responsibilities.

      For example, there is an ambulance service called '108' available for the residents of the city Ludhiana in the state of Punjab, India. When I inquired from the migrant slum dwellers whether they knew about it, the answer was mostly no. Those who did seem to be aware of the ambulance, did not know that it was meant for everyone and that it could be called anytime anywhere to take a patient to the hospital of the choice of the patient. If this information alone is made truly universal among the city residents including the squatter hut dwellers who migrate from other states and districts, it would lead to a reduction in death rate and morbidity rate to a certain extent. It would inculcate a sense of security among the residents of the city.
      Trying to achieve the same thing by improving the literacy rate would be a long route with a significant loss of life and health by the time we get there.

      People are busy therefore it is difficult to get their attention, also an incorrect argument. When people are told that we are from a major hospital in the city and that we had come to ask them how far they get health services, people made time up to one hour inspite of their busy engagements and sat down and answered our questions patiently. They expressed hopelessness in the system, in its capacity to provide services that are meant to be free.

       Therefore, information should be pursued seriously as an important tool to empower them towards the goal of making services more meaningfully accessible to them.  

Rupees 32 for a day

Even though the people living in jhuggis are paying large sums to survive, this must not be viewed as hidden or undisclosed riches that remains hidden because of dishonesty. These people are paying large sums to survive out of very small denominators whereas the rich who are also paying heavily are paying out of very large denominator. Therefore, the vulnerability index of the jhuggi residents shoots out of the graph while the vulnerability of the rich is nearly non-existent. The poor are vulnerable in many other respects for example in terms of information. They are so poorly informed about the services they should be receiving that they don't even think it is possible that such services be provided to them and that it is their right to ask for them. In a survey that I have been involved with, the poor, when asked, what facilities they would like the government health system to provide, they have no idea if it is possible at all to receive free medicines, subsidized treatment or health worker visits at their doorsteps.

Even to rent a jhuggi costs Rs. 800 per month. How can one survive with 32 a day?

suffering - odd or even

Is suffering evenly distributed between the poor and the rich? Why do we only think of serving the poor? 


Since I am from India, the previous post was about the Below Poverty Line (BPL) Certificate in India that ensures some free services to the poor.

BPL card

If social benefits are going to be linked to the BPL card then many deserving people will not get the benefits the government announces.