Upon completion of one year in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wrote an open letter to the nation. In the letter, he mentioned the several achievements of his government.
The PM also wrote at length about the challenges India continues to face amid the novel coronavirus outbreak and the global economic downturn this pandemic has prompted.
“From 2014 to 2019, India’s stature rose significantly. The dignity of the poor was enhanced. The nation achieved financial inclusion, free gas and electricity connections, total sanitation coverage, and made progress towards ensuring housing for all,” PM Narendra Modi wrote in his letter.
In addition, the Prime Minister also pointed at various posts initiated by his government such as the appointment of General Bipin Rawat as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff, the preparation for Mission Gaganyaan, and a campaign to vaccinate 50 crore livestock free of cost among others.
Elaborating on the schemes of his government that have brought changes across India, PM Modi mentioned the disbursement of Rs 72,000 crore to as many as 9.5 lakh farmers under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. He also mentions the Jal Jeevan Mission that aims to ensure supply of potable drinking water through piped connections to over 15 crore rural households.
“For the first time in our country’s history, farmers, farm labourers, small shopkeepers and workers in unorganised sector are assured the provision of regular monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after the age of 60 years,” the Prime Minister wrote in his letter to the nation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to the citizens of India to mark the first anniversary of his second term in office. The PM Modi-led NDA government had first come to power on May 26, 2014. He was re-elected as PM with a landslide victory on May 23. he took an oath to the office again on May 30.
In his letter, PM Modi has shared the various schemes launched by the Modi government during the first and second term and the monumental challenges faced by it.
“This day last year began a golden chapter in the history of Indian democracy. It was after several decades that the people of the country voted back a full-term government with a full majority. Once again, I bow to the 130 crore people of India and the democratic ethos of our nation,” PM Modi said in the letter.
He noted that during normal times, the celebrations for the first anniversary would have been different. “During normal times, I would have been in your midst. However, the present circumstances do not permit that. That is why I seek your blessings through this letter,” the PM said.
PM Narendra Modi said that since 2014, the nation has witnessed some major transformations. “In the last five years, the nation saw how the administrative apparatus broke itself free of status quo and from the swamp of corruption as well as misgovernance,” the prime minister said.
Counting the achievements of his first term, PM Modi said, “From 2014 to 2019, India’s stature rose significantly. The dignity of the poor was enhanced. The nation achieved financial inclusion, free gas and electricity connections, total sanitation coverage, and made progress towards ensuring ‘Housing for All’.”
The loss and the voiding will be evened in the fullness of time. For now, they, and their compatriots in suffering, have reached the villages where they feel safe, and protected, and as Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz noted, where all their attempts to escape cease. Out of four crore migrant labourers, 75 lakh have returned homes, we were informed last week. For those who have crossed the hump, questions of more earthly character loom large. What will they do in their villages and towns, the very places they left for reasons of want?
They have the promise of an infinitely basic meal at home, but their needs will mutate. The lockdown might lift soon, at least partially, but will those scarred by this summer ever return? At the other end, the comfort and cushion of home might wear out soon too, and the limitations of the village economy might start gnawing at them. For some, it could be a question of if, but for most, it’s a question of when. They are merely waiting for an opening.
Why? Avinash Kumar, assistant professor at JNU’s Centre for Informal Sector and Labour Studies, takes us back to the basic driver of migration: the local economy, deficient and unequally distributed, is unable to sustain its working population. “They are forced to go out and work. There’s also social mobility: better job, better education, better quality of life. So there’s forced migration as well as that driven by a pull.” Mostly, he says, it’s the landless and small and marginal farmers who migrate to cities. “Within those classes, we see people from all castes moving. The more privileged castes, however, have a greater degree of choice in work because of their social capital. You won’t usually find a savarna carrying bricks at a construction site. You are more likely to find them working as security guards,” says the professor.
Back in the village, one new variable is NREGA: the numbers opting for work under the social security scheme are quite telling. As a basic safety net, it guarantees 100 days of work and a daily maximum wage of Rs 220 to every person in a village. In 50 days beginning April 1, NREGA received applications from 35 lakh new workers across India. Compare with financial year 2019-20: in all its 365 days, there were only 15 lakh new applicants.
The figures are, in a real sense, a statement on the terrible paucity of work options in rural India. It’s not only the returnees, even locals who are out of work because of the lockdown are opting for it. Two weeks ago, the Centre pumped in Rs 40,000 crore to strengthen NREGA, in addition to the existing budget of Rs 61,000 crore. In the usual scheme of things, NREGA is often seen only as a means of supplementary income and a viable option for women who can’t go out of the village for work for a number of reasons. It didn’t stand up for contest as a primary option because a) the wages are considerably low as compared to city wages, and b) it gives only 100 days of work whereas cities offer plentiful, if irregular, work throughout the year. But in this Covid-bitten season, it has become an option of the last resort.
Rajasthan has the highest number of NREGA workers at the moment: 40.3 lakh, as of May 26. In the first week of March, that stood at only 10 lakh, then fell further to 62,000 by mid-April. That was because guidelines weren’t clear on NREGA during the first lockdown (March 25-April 14), which resulted in low labour engagement.
