There is a way to deliver a minimum income guarantee — but Congress hasn’t found it | The Indian Express

There is a way to deliver a minimum income guarantee — but Congress hasn’t found it | The Indian Express

Written by Jayati Ghosh |Updated: March 27, 2019 9:00:34 am

Jayati Ghosh is professor of economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

There is a way to deliver a minimum income guarantee — but Congress hasn’t found it

Instead of embarking on a massive administrative exercise with uncertain benefits, it is possible to think of another combination of public interventions that would actually ensure minimum income to a much larger proportion of the population.

The criticisms of this scheme are not about cost. Rather, they are about its workability and the possibility of other and better ways of using fiscal resources. 

The Congress party’s recent declaration that, if voted to power, it will seek to ensure a minimum income to 20 per cent of the poorest households in the country, is laudable in intent. It also brings back policy attention to the penury and insecurity that continue to plague much of India’s population, and particularly the most destitute. But, as presented, it is completely unworkable — and if the Congress is really serious about the goal of eliminating poverty, it will have to think of a different way of reaching it.