'Plan paper lacks pro-active prescriptions for poor'

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 28. The approach paper to the Tenth Five Year Plan has come in for criticism on grounds that it contains few pro-active policy prescriptions for the poor and the backward classes and instead recommends many measures, such as levy of user-charges for practically all services provided by the Government, which would adversely impact the poor.

The Centre for Alternative Dalit Media (CADAM) at a meeting said it found that the document frankly admitted abject poverty of large masses, lesser employment generation, lack of basic amenities for a large section, failure to contain illiteracy and unavailability of adequate nutrition and health services. However, the paper recommended continuation and intensification of the current policies which probably resulted in the present situation, it said.

The CADAM, in a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is also the Planning Commission Chairman, said the proposals called for reforms in the agriculture sector, running of schemes such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) by banks without any subsidy, generation of funds by gram panchayats to the extent of 15-25 per cent to get the balance funds from the Government and asked the poor not to be merely benefited by the growth generated elsewhere but also to contribute to the growth.

``We are concerned that these objectives would ruin the life of Dalits, disadvantaged and the poor equally. You would agree that schemes like the IRDP are primarily run for the people below the poverty line, and Dalits constitute the majority of them. If these schemes are run by commercial banks working on commercial lines, we are afraid they would need guarantees and securities which these sections do not posses. This kind of arrangement would not help in alleviating poverty,'' the memorandum said.

It drew attention to the proposal to reduce Government employment by three per cent every year with no recruitment during the Tenth Plan, accelerated disinvestment, widespread imposition of user- charges for all non-merit goods, levy of tax at every stage of value addition from production to sale of goods and services and appropriate pricing of public services.

Stating that over 400 million people were living below the poverty line, it said ``only a cruel system can impose user- charges and can ask for pricing of public services from these people''. By suggesting no recruitment and leaving vacant secretarial and clerical posts, the Planning Commission ``seems to have forgotten its role of generating more and more jobs through better planning and instead is preparing planned marginalisation of the Dalits and the poor''.

The paper had ``completely ignored'' the problems of the Dalits and the poor by not mentioning the Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub-Plans as well as the welfare of the Scheduled Castes. Quoting from Government reports, the memorandum said the literacy gap between SCs and the general category had increased from 13.7 per cent in 1961 to 14.80 in 1991 while that between the STs and the general category had widened from 15.49 per cent in 1961 to 22.61 per cent in 1991. Also, the dropout rate of SC and ST students, as per the 1991 census, stood at 67.8 per cent and 78.6 per cent, respectively and representation of SCs and STs in group A and B services had been far below the expected level.

Against this background, the memorandum urged the Prime Minister to direct the Planning Commission to re-work the approach paper. Incidentally, a full meeting of the Planning Commission, chaired by the Prime Minister, is expected to approve the approach paper on Friday.

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