shoveling for their supper

I. Shoveling For Their Supper, The Economist, April 24th


http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11090559&CFID=4178760&CFTOKEN=32844250





II. Summary


India has a poor history of public-works projects. Budgets for the projects were often plundered by corrupt government officials and untrustworthy contractors. Now there is the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). The Congress party has recently inacted it and it seems like it may be promising. For example, it guarantees any rural families who request work 100 days of work per year and if work isn't provided in 15 days, they're entitle to collect unemployment benefits. Also, NREGS has many safeguards to make corruption and stealing of funds less likely. In some of India the scheme is working well but it sometimes has hiccups. Unfortunately, this isn't that common. One fault is that some families not provided their 100 days have gotten barely any unemployment benefits. It has also overshot the government's budget by $4 mil. Finally, it has been discovered that approximately 33% of NREGS wages in Jharkhand were being trousered by corrupt officials.





III. Reactions

• This article relates to the theme of development of social structures. This is because NREGS was enacted to help the lower social/economic classes (ex: former untouchables)


• The history of this issue is not a postive one. India's public-works projects have a history of corruption, officials and contractors stealing from budgets. In fact, in 1980 ghandi said that 85% of welfare spending fails to reach its recipients.


• The point of view is of the British, they are outsiders in this issue.Point of view may possibly be impacting the way this issue is being reported. The author may be exaggerating faults in the public works system and Indian government in general because it is possible that he has animosity towards India due to their independence from British rule.
• The point of view of a rural Indian working in the public works projects. This point of view to show NREG's faults from the inside.
• I think as long as there is corruption in Indian government, public works projects and welfare will continue to not very benficial. I feel sorry for the Indians who suffer due to corrupt officials.