Going beyond Tamil Nadu’s ‘freebies’ narrative

Disparaging references to “freebies” are a well-liked trope of media protection of elections in Tamil Nadu. This Assembly election isn’t any totally different: free information, free tabs, free washing machines have been within the information as political events launched their election manifestos. Electoral guarantees function a street map for elected governments and deserve higher scrutiny. I took a fast have a look at the full manifestos in English of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Indian National Congress, the Makkal Needhi Maiam and the Bharatiya Janata Party. (Unfortunately, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) doesn’t have an English model.)

The 17,000-plus phrase manifesto of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) is essentially the most detailed. It mentions “welfare” 55 instances, adopted by means of with frequent mentions of training/faculty (61 instances), ladies/woman/feminine (60 instances), and of meals/well being/vitamin (17 instances). The counts of those phrases within the manifestos of different events pale as compared (see desk). In the case of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, there’s little distinction (e.g., training seems 23-24 instances; ladies 14-15 instances).

The Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), a brand new occasion headed by actor Kamal Haasan, made information when it introduced a compensation for girls’s unpaid, primarily home, work. The occasion has a really lean manifesto (two paperwork, 2-3 pages every) that hardly discusses the matters listed above.

Simple phrase counts can solely inform us a lot — filling pages is hardly the purpose of an election manifesto. Studying them permits us to get a way of how substantive the guarantees are and the way deep is the understanding of points. For occasion, within the case of the BJP, one of many welfare-related guarantees is merely that “Adi Dravidar Welfare will be renamed as “Scheduled Caste Welfare Department””. In distinction, within the corresponding part, the DMK features a promise of reservations in authorities jobs for Adi-Dravidars, scholarships for ladies from sure subgroups, hostel lodging and meals allowance, and so forth. The manifesto additionally clarifies which guarantees apply to kids born of inter-caste marriages.

Interestingly, the BJP guarantees to switch panchami land to Dalits. Dalit/land activists have questioned the promise as a result of a BJP chief from Tamil Nadu, as Vice Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, had ignored petitions to the Commission on exactly this subject. With this promise, aside from wooing Dalit voters, the BJP might be making an attempt to maintain alive an allegation — denied by the DMK — that the DMK’s Murasoli workplace is on panchami land.

A pioneer State

As a growth economist engaged on social coverage, Tamil Nadu is of nice curiosity. From faculty meals, canteens (or group kitchens) and maternity entitlements,it has pioneered among the finest welfare programmes.

Following in that custom, the DMK has essentially the most complete, if modest, imaginative and prescient for a welfare state (in its manifesto): 150 days of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) work as a substitute of simply 100 per 12 months per household and a good wage (₹300 per day). Reintroduction of urad dal within the Public Distribution System has been promised. For kids’s vitamin, it suggest so as to add milk at school meals; Tamil Nadu already serves eggs every single day. Running a programme nicely, requires respectable work circumstances for employees; the DMK guarantees pensions and gratuity for anganwadi and mid-day meal staff.

For ladies, among the many most vital guarantees is one to extend maternity entitlements underneath the Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy scheme, from ₹18,000 to ₹24,000 per youngster. In State authorities jobs, the occasion proposes to extend paid maternity depart from 9 to 12 months. Besides this, it guarantees to arrange nursing stations with privateness. Exclusive breastfeeding for the primary six months is among the many most vital wants of a kid. In a society the place ladies are to not be confined to their houses as a result of they bear the primary accountability of kid rearing, the promise of nursing stations will not be trivial. There can also be a proposal to arrange 500 new Kalaignar canteens (modelled on Amma’s canteens, pioneered by former Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa).

The Congress manifesto doesn’t point out NREGA — an Act that was handed by its personal authorities underneath the United Progressive Alliance-1; and so far as the PDS is worried, that part within the manifesto is populated with three seemingly random factors: “steps will be taken <to provide free rice; along with free rice>, lentils, cooking oil and other essential groceries” (emphasis added). (To be honest, the English model of the Congress manifesto is an abridged model of the Tamil manifesto; nevertheless, it does come throughout as a unexpectedly “Google translated” doc.)

This is to not say that each one manifesto guarantees are laudable. Just to present one instance: as in Haryana’s broadly criticised, presumably unconstitutional transfer to order jobs for locals,the “DMK assures to introduce legislation to reserve 75 percent of private sector jobs for locals.” It is a misguided, impractical promise that might result in corruption and crimson tape with none substantive beneficial properties.

Exacerbating inequality

The DMK manifesto additionally betrays how deeply ingrained inequality is in our society. It guarantees an enhanced compensation of ₹24,000 for girls as maternity entitlement within the unorganis̥ed sector. This will nonetheless not carry their entitlements on a par with these of ladies in, say, authorities jobs, who’re entitled to 26 weeks paid depart underneath the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017 (and who’re being promised 12 months by the DMK). While the primary is critical, the second will improve inequality. Finally, there are obvious blindspots: aside from ignoring well being care in a pandemic 12 months, the insidious use of Aadhaar in welfare and beyond has not been opposed.

Need to refocus

The major motive for dwelling on the small print of the manifestos is that the mainstream English media hardly ever goes beyond the ‘freebies’ narrative: free washing machines, “free data”, and so forth. In earlier elections, free rice, followers and mixer-grinders made information. Other vital guarantees that might contact, and sure enhance, the lives of hundreds of thousands hardly ever make headlines. For occasion, given the nationwide farmer protests, the proposals on agriculture within the DMK manifesto ought to have been debated. Among different guarantees, it contains the promotion of cooperatives for fairer advertising mechanisms. Similarly, it mentions jobs/employment extra usually (66 instances) than welfare (55), however we now have not heard what these guarantees are. An assurance to redress these issues is at the very least a recognition the issue exists.

The argument right here will not be that merely making progressive guarantees will guarantee their implementation, neither is the thought to create an impression that politics in Tamil Nadu is people-centred or clear. The concern is that by permitting ourselves to be drowned within the freebies narrative, we’re giving political events a free move at a vital juncture.

Reetika Khera is Associate Professor (Economics) on the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi