Credit reinforced Enterprise India -By Rony Banerjee
Often under the Key deliverables based on the updated knowledge repository and details of social protection schemes and services in India are referred for outlining the grass root level programs and projects, especially during the beginning of the financial year, by the development agencies, especially those who work around women, children and the youth.
Promoting access to social protection services for vulnerable and marginalized is the key pointer for all such developmental projects,more so beyond the post covid era. This is an era of confessions, commotions and unforeseen conditions.
Talking specifically about the hinterlands where the paradigm of successes and failures are beyond the enterprise mode, an economy of philanthropic sustainance prevail, honestly, more so for the agents and agencies of change. Simply the change makers are yet to understand what exactly needs a change.
The purpose of such initiatives being framed out in the five-star environments of international metropolitan offices somehow fall short of relevant and respective information that can actualy cater to the social needs for sustainable actions. The out-comes are nothing more than multi coloured documents and high-end power point presentations. Truly speaking, they are re-incarnations and avataar of all such ones,prepared earlier.
Every such project is trying to comprehend social protection as a set of existing public policies, programmes and systems, hardly without extending the wings beyond the horizons. Why is that the poor and vulnerables are mere statistics and resultants of the erstwhile census and not real-time database ofindividuals and households, is again an unanswered question. Very few projects are being paved out to address reduction of economic and social vulnerabilities with fixed timelines and absolute deliverables. Everyone talks upon improvement of the abilities of the underprivileged. Seldom someone would directly ascertain their ability to cope with risks and immediate shocks.
The objectives are phased out for enhancing their social status and human rights. If asked, why social protection is a vital instrument, everyone would confide but none will ever detail out the nuances. The buzzword would be social equity and social justice, without even the slightest indications of contemplating poverty and deprivation as a part of the existing norms. Sometimes they contradict theories of economics, based on which they had pleaded their previous cases.
I am yet to understand what exactly is inclusive development and social protection.Who are the marginalised and why are they poor? Poverty for me had always been a state of mind and largely a comparitive notion. Preventing deprivations or worsening of deprivations is more like a makeshift mechanism and support matrix for shock management. The society is crawling upon it and the agents of change are surviving upon the trail marks.
Enterprising and economising the social capital and bearing the demographic dividends is barely an act practised. Promoting economic opportunities and human capital development through large ticket support grants are yet another farce, more so a comedy.Transformation of power and inherent imbalances in the society are responsible for creating vulnerabilities . It’s by large an individual opinion ,yet based on significant evidences from across the country.
The national level experiences like MGNREGA is just one such illustrative example, having demonstrated its potential and practical legacy. If at all social protection is important in India, the typical mix of cash and in-kind transfers as well as conditional and unconditional transfers needs to be stopped with immediate effect. The federal structure of the implementation and initiatives should be made free from
Inclusion errors. There are around 950 protection schemes in India, however sensitive, the approaches that contributes in reducing deprivations and enhancing capabilities are yet to see a dawn, otherwise the havoc of CoVID-19 would not have brought down everything built up in 70 years to ground zero so drastically. the wheel needs another re-invention ! A credit reinforced Enterprise India @75 is much required.
Bio: The author has more than two decades of experience and exposure in Project Management, Strategic Business development & Operations, majorly impacting livelihoods, non-mainstream rural/ urban transformations and development initiatives.
