Balancing growth & welfare

Maneka Gandhi’s criticism of Budget cuts in welfare spending may help drive home the point that in the search for economic growth India cannot afford to neglect its malnourished children and the disadvantaged. A cut in budgetary allocations by about Rs 9,000 crore means the women and child welfare ministry is struggling to pay salaries to those overseeing the daily feeding of over 10 crore children and the poor. The problem is illustrative of the conundrum facing the government in terms of planning the economy while trying to find a balance between growth and welfare, both of paramount importance to a country suffering from lack of employment opportunities as well as poverty.

To pump money into infrastructure to revive the economy and let the trickle-down effect benefit all is not illogical. Not to create jobs would be to risk social unrest, but the catch is if allocations go one way they affect the other, with welfare money desperately needed in the hinterland where India’s poverty is most virulent. Not only does the marginal farmer need help but his children need jobs as well, which, in a nutshell, is the crux of the problems facing the country. The focus on the weaker sections cannot be given up just to stimulate growth. The trick is to find better ways of making welfare money go further, which means all of it must reach the intended beneficiaries. The challenge of India’s economy is like none other, what with more than 363 million people living below the poverty line even in 2011-12.