Finance minister Arun Jaitley said in his Budget speech, “We shall leave no stone unturned in creating a vibrant India.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that his policies would be for 125 crore Indians, but most of India has been forgotten in the Union Budget.
The Budget has major gaps in terms of commitment to basic needs of Indians — of food, water and livelihood. These basic needs constitute the fundamental right to life guaranteed in Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. It has become fashionable to write off the fundamental duties of the state as “populism”. Ensuring fundamental rights is not populism, but a constitutional duty. I welcome the commitment to move towards “Health for All”, the two key initiatives i.e. the Free Drug Service and Free Diagnosis Service would be taken up on priority. This is needed to resist MNC and US pressure on changing Article 3d of our patent laws that allows the manufacture of affordable medicine.
India still lives in her villages. However, rural India has been treated as a stepchild in the Budget. While only Rs 100 crore has been allocated for creating infrastructure for villages, Rs 7,060 crore has been allocated for 100 smart cities. This amounts to abandoning our rural areas to deep neglect.
Agrarian distress is the single biggest contributor to the economic crisis. There is an allocation of Rs 800,000 crore farm credit. But if the credit is not focused on getting farmers out of debt by planning a transition to debt-free organic farming, the '800,000 crore credit will increase the farmers’ debt.
I welcome the Rs 100 crore for development of organic farming in north-eastern states. This is under a separate category of “organic food”, it is not integrated into agriculture policy. However, all of India should have an organic agriculture policy both to rejuvenate our soil, water and biodiversity as well as to help farmers get out of debt due to the purchase of costly chemicals and seeds.
Rejuvenating fertility is the most significant contribution of organic farming. I welcome Mr Jaitley’s plan to provide soil health card to every farmer and '56 crore for setting up soil testing labs. However, the Budget for training farmers in organic farming is missing. The process of transformation of a revitalised India built on the foundation of fertile soils is missing. Soil health cards without capacity building for creating healthy soils through green manures, composting and organic matter will become an additional bureaucratic burden on already burdened farmers.
The year 2015 will be the UN’s Year of Soil. The science of building soil fertility spread from India to the world through organic farming. In 1905, Britain sent Albert Howard to India to improve Indian agriculture with chemicals. Howard found fertile soil without any pests. He decided to learn from Indian peasants. On the basis of peasants’ guidance, Howard wrote An Agricultural Testament. India has a long tradition in increasing yields through building rather than destroying soil fertility. We need centres of research and training that focus on traditional organic farming. Agriculture research centres based on the scientific paradigm of the last century have an allocation of more than '600 crore.
There is no budget for training and research in organic farming and agroecology.
I am surprised that in an agrarian economy like India, there was no mention of skill development for diverse rural industries linked to agriculture which need to be supported to create new work. There was no fund allocation for skill development though '500 crore for new IITs and IIMs has been allocated. Are the poor once again being forgotten? The Budget should have identified all the areas of opportunity for rural and underprivileged youth. This is what will create a vibrant India for 125 crore Indians.
Value-added activities in rural areas are a major contributor to reduction of poverty. However, the Budget’s focus was not on rural areas but on industry. The Budget for food processing should be dedicated to creating opportunities for women and youth, in processing healthy foods. This would create a synergy between health objectives, and employment generation.
To rejuvenate India we need to be bold. The crisis is too deep to be addressed through band-aids. We needed a paradigm shift in the Budget. We didn’t get that.
The writer is the executive director of the Navdanya Trust
