Dear Sir,
Odisha is making progress in poverty reduction but slowly, slower than other states like Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu. If Odisha continues to reduce its high poverty rate at the current pace, it will continue to be at the bottom among the poorest states.
I have done a lot of study on the topic of poverty reduction since 1996. I have published three books on the subject and a 4th one is under way. Based on my latest research, I have 4 recommendations for you to reduce the high poverty rate of Odisha to the Indian average in 3-5 years.
- Conditional Cash Transfer
Bolsa Familia (wikipedia.org/Bosalfamilia) is a welfare programmee of the Brazilian government to reduce short-term poverty by direct cash transfers and fight long-term poverty by increasing human capital. The programmee was the center piece of President Lula da Silva’s social policy. The programmee reduced Brazil’s poverty rate by 28% in five years. In this programmee the beneficiary receives 35 US Dollars per month. Only thing the family has to do is to send the children to school, keep them at school and get them immunized. Hence the name conditional cash transfer. A so-called Citizen Card (a debit card) is mail to each family each month. The money can be withdrawn at 14,000 locations. In 2006 the programmee cost the government 2.5% of the total goverment’s expenditure. The programmee was so successful that many of the Southern American counties and Turkey have adopted it. The World Bank recommends the programmee. The big advantage of this programmmee is that it bypasses the middle man.
Another approach of direct cash transfer is the Graduation Approach which has been successful in over 40 countries. In this approach the poor families are given money to buy a buffalo, cow, goat, pig, chicken or to start a micro business. They are also train to take care of them.
The Government of Odisha should implement Bolsa familia type of direct cash transfer program in Odisha as soon as possible. According to 2011 census Odisha had 13.6 million poor people. If we assume 4 persons living per household, the number of poor households will be (13.4/4 = 3.4) 3.4 millions. If the government gives a direct cash grant of Rs 15,000 per year per family the annual cost to the government will be about 5100 crores. The amount will be about 12% of Odisha’s 2016-17 budgets of 44,265 crores. The money seems to be a lot but it is quite doable. The government of Odisha can seek some special grant from the center and /or suspend some existing poverty reduction schemes to find the money. It will be not be the matter of finding the money but the will to implement it. As the direct cash transfer will eliminate the middle men, you will get resistance from your Babus. But you have the confidence of the people of Odisha and you should proceed.
- Facilitate Migration
Poverty overwhelming is a rural problem. It has always been throughout human history. Odisha with a population of 42 millions has 47530 villages compare to 1364 villages in Kerala with a population of 34 millions. Most people in an Odia village do not own the land but work off and on for a small land owner. Most of the time they are unemployed or underemployed. They continue to stay in their village and starve.
Education and migration are two of the oldest actions against poverty. Poor people, who are bold or desperate enough to leave their village to nearby town or city or to a far off place, escape from the grinding poverty of rural areas. Their children get an education and escape the poverty of their parents and grandparents.
Take the example of the state of Kerala. People from Kerala started migrating to other Indian states in 1960s and 1970s. In 1970s and 1980s, they started migrating to the Gulf States. In 2008 22 lakhs people from Kerala were working in the Gulf States, 29 per 100 households. Each worker sent an average of 52,000 rupees to his /her family per year. The total amount of remittance was 1.74 times the total revenue of Kerala. The remittance has played a major role in improving the living standard of the people. It has contributed to the highest Human Development Index (HDI) of Kerala among the Indian states.
Migration of Oriyas to other states is not new. Thousands of people from coastal areas have migrated to Kolkata over a long time. Their children got education and moved to middle class. Now educated Oriyas in large numbers are working in Bengalaru. Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. Large numbers of Oriya labourers from all parts of Odisha are migrating to other states for work. They are being taken advantage of by the dalal or the middlemen. Instead of denying that it is a problem, your government should do everything possible to facilitate migration of Oriyas from village to town, town to city, to other states and especially to the Gulf States. Migration in the long run is good for the people who migrate and their families who stay behind as they receive the remittance. To facilitate migration your government should adopt a pro-migration policy and take the following steps:
- Open large number of recruiting centres
- Give one time cash grant of Rs 15,000 or Rs 20,000 to each migrating family to defer the cost of migration so that the migrating Oriyas are not taken advantage of by the dalals,
- Provide schooling for the children of the migrants.
- Provide health insurance, disability and life insurance for them.
- Help Oriyas to migrate to the Gulf States in large numbers.
- Education
The most important investment Odisha can make is in her people. All experts agree that the long term return on education is quite high. The economic return on girls’ education is even higher. The benefits of girl’s education are many: decrease birth rate, increase productivity, gender equality in decision making and many more. Studies have shown that even one grade education can increase productivity by 10 to 15%. Steps Odisha government can take to improve education are:
- Provide breakfast along with the midday meals to all children up to middle school.
- Improve school’s infrastructures including toilets, play ground and hostels.
- Hire more female teachers. They will act as role models for girls.
- Improve the quality of education; decrease teachers absentee rate, students’ drop-out rate and increase the graduation rate.
- Provide conditional cash transfer to mothers for their children’s school attendance and immunization.
4- Provision of Basic Healthcare
The relationship between health and poverty is well established. There is also a strong correlation between nutrition, health and learning. Odisha’s infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, malnutrition rate are quite high , one of the highest in India. Preventable diseases like malaria, diarrhea( occassional cholera), tuberculosis , filariasis, leprosy and worms infestations are still common. More than 60%of the pregnant women are anemic. Anemic and malnourished mothers give birth to low birth weight infants who can have long term problems. The government of Odisha can take the following steps to improve Odisha’s health indictors.
- Put emphasis on preventive health care rather than acute care as it is being done now. Spend most of the health budget on preventive care.
- Supply safe drinking water to all no matter where they reside remote village or in Bhubaneswar. Provide chlorine tablet, bottle waters or piped water but provide safe drinking water to all.
- Immunize all children.
- Provide health insurance to all Oriyas, free to BPL families and charge a graduated premium to others.
- Create a cadre of village health workers as recommended by the World Health Organization.
- Improve the infrastructures of all the government hospitals and then transfer their control to the local board of trustees to run them.
Sir, the present approach of multiple poverty alleviation schemes is not working well. Resources meant for the poor are being eaten of by the middlemen-politicians, government officials and contractors. People of Odisha have trusted you for 16 years. Please take a bold step and transfer money directly to the poor as has been successfully done in Brazil and many other countries. Please give it a try at least in the poorest districts of Odisha.
Sincerely,
Dr Saheb Sahu, OCI
(Former WODC Member and Former MD Kalinga Hospital)
Presently residing in USA
Belongs to: Mulbar, Block: Bhtali, District: Bargarh
E-mail: sahusaheb@yahoo.com