The essence of Reetika Khera’s remarkable book, Freebies or Rights: Understanding Social Policy in India is contained in the Preamble of the Constitution of India which, in fact, she ends with:
‘To secure to all its citizens
Justice, social, economic and political,
Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship,
Equality of status and opportunity and to promote among them all
Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual…’
The single most central debate today in India is related to social policy, visibilised in two opposite viewpoints – should allocations and schemes for the most marginalised and vulnerable groups be based on the rights guaranteed in the Constitution or are they a fiscal ‘waste’. Integrated in these perspectives are issues of universal versus targeting; of inequalities both economic and extra-economic; of ‘growth’ versus ‘development’.
The vivid and passionate exposé of the evolution of social policy in the past two decades unfolds and illuminates without falling into the trap of romanticising and romanticism. This analytical journey is captured with all its bumps and challenges, some of which have been overcome while some are derailed from the original objectives. With the analysis located within the prevailing macro ‘growth’ paradigm, each statement is substantiated and validated by a huge secondary database as well as numerous surveys conducted over two decades constituting, as it were, a sort of ‘social audit’.
The denouement is contextualised internationally as well as nationally, both conceptually and quantitatively, additionally incorporating inter-state variations in relation to schemes as also allocations. Although it is rather problematic – as the author herself states – to delineate the scope of social policy, which of course requires a multi-disciplinary approach, the essential elements are focused on ‘taking a life-cycle approach’. These include seven major government programmes of social support that constitute India’s social policy framework: maternity benefits, integrated child development services scheme, the mid-day meal scheme, public distribution system, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the national social assistance programme and public canteens.
The dilution of the social policy framework is apparent across most schemes, with the social sector’s share of the total Union Budget expenditure down from 21% in 2021-22 to 17% today, just a little more than the defence allocation of 15%. Its share in GDP at 2.3% is the lowest ever in almost two decades. It needs to be pointed out that this sector includes all major areas of allocation that impact people the most: rural and urban development; agriculture & allied; education; health; social welfare; North-east. The financial articulation of health and education expenditures too are declining, with the primary focus being on institutes of higher education and ‘speciality’ hospitals: this is evident in the fact that over one lakh government primary schools have been closed in the last decade, and out-of-pocket health expenses have risen by 30% just in the past five years.
Of special concern is the dilution of child rights, quite inexplicable if not cynical, considering that globally India has among the highest proportion of its children stunted, wasted and underweight. As the author points out, ‘budgetary neglect under the NDA’ has risen dramatically. ‘The cuts were drastic in the case of Mid-Day Meals and the ICDS. In real terms, it declined by 40% compared with 2014-15.’ Today, child-related expenditure as a share of GDP is at the lowest ever, at barely 0.34%, less than half of what it was 14 years ago.
The Covid chapter resonates especially in view of the fact of citizens’ efforts to create the now famous ‘Mumbai Model’ in the absence of an empathetic pandemic response policy, with the State absolving itself of even the fundamentals of social policy in a country where the majority are dependent on public health facilities and where one-third of its citizens are migrants. In this context, the oft-ignored scheme detailed in the public canteens chapter is particularly relevant: this form of social policy can certainly be taken forward especially to support single male migrants, to reduce women’s unpaid care burden, and can also emerge as a relatively inexpensive method of offsetting inflation and falling real wages.
A ‘new’ avatar of the Welfare State appears to be in the making where rights are being replaced by duties, where expenditure on the most marginalised and vulnerable is being termed as ‘freebies’ and ‘revdi’. Freebies are, in fact, tax concessions, reduction in corporate taxes, ‘haircuts’ on large loan defaulters, etc, etc.
Among the most debated issues is that of women-centric cash transfers linked primarily to elections. While these may be somewhat successful election strategies, they, in fact, reinforce patriarchal divides and deepen prevailing rigidities. The most blatant illustration is the names of the schemes themselves: Griha Lakshmi, Gruha Aadhar, Mahtari Vandan, etc. As the author states, “the focus on ‘homemakers’, ‘married women’, and ‘mothers’ reveals that the state is paying women for being women who do care work”. The consequences are several: eligibility being defined as a woman’s location in the patriarchal slot; validation of the perception that care work is only a woman’s responsibility; justification of the gendered division of labour; non-recognition of care as economic infrastructure……..the list is long.
And, most fundamentally, obscuring of the fact that it is the State’s responsibility to reduce the overall domestic and care burden for women and also men via appropriate and resource-rich macroeconomic policies, including enhancing universal access to basic human rights, including healthcare, child and elder care, education, nutrition, water and clean cooking energy. In this context, it must be pointed out that participation rates of and the time spent by women and also men in care as well as domestic unpaid labour has actually increased between the two time use studies of 2019 and 2024.
It would have been expected that given the sharp fall in India’s global rankings over the past decade, accompanied by unprecedented levels of inequalities, both economic and extra-economic, a Republic would have strengthened and expanded the fundamentals of a Welfare State. Instead, what is evolving is the institutionalisation of prevailing inequalities and dilution of the rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
The book Freebies or Rights: Understanding Social Policy in India is a must-read for all who have a conscience, who believe in critical thinking and those who are committed to the rights enshrined in the Constitution of India………and especially for those who do not.
Author: Reetika Khera
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books LLP
ISBN: 978-93-6336-575-9
Price: ₹431 (Amazon)
(Ritu Dewan, former director of the department of economics at the University of Mumbai, is an economist and feminist scholar with extensive work in development economics, gender studies, labour markets and rural and urban development. She has served as president of the Indian Society of Labour Economics and the Indian Association for Women’s Studies, and has held several academic and public-policy positions. The author of more than 250 publications, including 56 books and monographs, she has also worked as a consultant to organisations including the UNDP, UN Women, ILO, World Bank and Asian Development Bank.)
Freebies or Rights: Understanding Social Policy in India
